Russia and Japan have long been at odds over the southern Kuril islands. (Photo: http://dunyanews.tv)

Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to restart talks on a peace treaty hampered since World War II by a territorial row. In a 20-minutes telephone conversation, Abe also agreed to visit Russia at an appropriate date in 2013. In the conversation, Abe told Putin that their two countries should work hard to find a “mutually acceptable solution” to the island row. Putin told Abe that “there is a need to instruct the foreign ministries of both countries to activate the process regarding the peace treaty. Russia and Japan have long been at odds over the southern Kuril islands, which Soviet forces seized in the last days of World War II, driving away Japanese inhabitants. Tokyo refers to them as its “Northern Territories”.