Japan and Russia in tough talks over islands
The fate of four contested islands in the fertile fishing waters of the Sea of Okhotsk was expected to dominate talks today between Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Machimura arrived in Moscow on yesterday, intent on pushing for the return of the Russian-held islands, which Moscow calls the Southern Kurils and Tokyo calls the Northern Territories.
