【英语国际】俄总统视察俄日争议岛屿

Japan on Monday strongly protested against a visit by Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, to a disputed group of islands seized by Moscow in the closing days of the second world war.

Mr Medvedev’s three-and-a-half hour visit to the four southernmost islands in a 56-island archipelago – known in Japan as the Northern Territories and to Russia as the Southern Kurils – was the first by a Russian or Soviet head of state. The visit threatens to reignite a bitter diplomatic feud over the ownership of the islands.

Seiji Maehara, Japan’s foreign minister, summoned Russia’s ambassador Mikhail Bely to protest at Mr Medvedev’s visit to the islands. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, condemned the summons as “unacceptable” and insisted the “Russian president [had] visited Russian land” in comments that could intensify the dispute.

Russian officials were scathing about the Japanese response. One told TASS, the official Russian news agency, “the Japanese response is incomprehensible. Would we ask Polish permission to visit Kaliningrad?”, referring to the Baltic Sea exclave also seized by the Red army in the second world war.

Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, told a session of Japan’s Diet: “We’ve taken the consistent position that this is our nation’s territory, so the president’s visit to the area is very regrettable.”

The dispute came as Tokyo struggles to ease frictions over a group of Japanese-controlled but Chinese-claimed islands in the East China Sea that overshadowed a gathering of leaders in Hanoi last week.

Russian commentators said Mr Medvedev may have been under pressure to display patriotic credentials after months of cozying up to the US. “Medvedev had to show that he is a decisive president,” said Igor Bunin, of the Centre for Political Technology in Moscow.

The visit, in spite of warnings from Tokyo that it could harm relations, adds a new element of territorial sensitivity to Japan’s preparations to host a summit of the Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation nations in Yokohama this month.

Sino-Japanese relations have been chilled by a dispute sparked by the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain following a clash with Japanese coast guard vessels near the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea last month.

In spite of the captain’s release, frictions over the islands – known in China as the Diaoyu group – prompted Beijing to scrap at the last moment a summit meeting between Mr Kan and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in Hanoi on Friday.

Mr Medvedev’s visit on Monday also highlights the failure of Moscow and Tokyo to resolve their dispute over the territories just north of Japan’s main island of Hokkaido.

Last year, Mr Medvedev and then-Japanese premier Taro Aso agreed to adopt an “outside the box” approach. But the accord has sparked no new thinking. Moscow has suggested it might agree to divide the islands, with two being kept by each side, a stance Tokyo has rejected.

周一，日本强烈抗议俄罗斯总统德米特里?梅德韦杰夫(Dmitry Medvedev)视察有争议的南千岛群岛（日本称为“北方四岛”）。这些岛屿在二战快结束时被苏联占领。

南千岛群岛是由56个岛屿组成的群岛中最靠南的四个岛屿。梅德韦杰夫对这四个岛进行了三个半小时的视察——这是俄罗斯或苏联国家元首首次登上南千岛群岛。此举可能重新点燃关于这些岛屿归属权的激烈外交争端。

日本外相前原诚司(Seiji Maehara)召见俄罗斯驻日大使米哈伊尔?别雷(Mikhail Bely)，对梅德韦杰夫登岛提出抗议。俄罗斯外长谢尔盖?拉夫罗夫(Sergei Lavrov)谴责这一召见是“不可接受的”，并坚称这是“俄罗斯总统视察俄罗斯领土”。这些言论可能会加剧纠纷。

俄罗斯官员对日本的反应态度强硬。一位官员向俄通社-塔斯社(Itar-Tass)表示：“日本的反应是令人无法理解的。我们视察加里宁格勒需要波兰总统允许吗？”加里宁格勒是苏联红军在二战期间占领的波罗的海飞地。

日本首相菅直人(Naoto Kan)在国会的一次会议上表示：“我们一贯坚持北方四岛是日本领土的立场，因此对俄罗斯总统视察这些岛屿感到非常遗憾。”

日俄发生争执之际，日本政府正努力缓和日中之间因钓鱼岛引起的纠纷——钓鱼岛在日本实际控制下、但中国宣称拥有主权。这一纠纷给上周在河内举行的领导人峰会蒙上阴影。

俄罗斯评论员表示，在经过数月与美国的亲近之后，梅德韦杰夫可能面临压力，要求他拿出爱国行为。莫斯科政治科技中心(Centre for Political Technology)的伊戈尔?布宁(Igor Bunin)表示：“梅德韦杰夫不得不向外界表明，自己是一位果断的总统。”

尽管日本警告可能会损害两国关系，但梅德韦杰夫仍视察了千岛群岛，这为本月日本准备在横滨举办亚太经合组织(APEC)峰会增添了领土敏感性的新因素。

9月，在一艘中国渔船与日本海上保安厅巡逻艇在东海钓鱼岛附近相撞之后，日本方面扣押了中国渔船船长，中日关系因此降到冰点。

尽管后来日本释放了中国船长，但围绕钓鱼岛的摩擦促使中国政府在最后一刻取消了中国总理温家宝与菅直人原定于上周五在河内的会晤。

梅德韦杰夫周一的视察还突显出，俄罗斯与日本未能解决关于这些岛屿的纠纷——它们位于日本主要岛屿北海道以北。

去年，梅德韦杰夫和时任日本首相的麻生太郎(Taro Aso)同意采取“打破常规”的办法。但那个协定没有产生任何新的思路。俄罗斯政府建议，该国可以同意分割这些岛屿，两国分别保留两个岛屿，但日本政府拒绝了这一提议。

译者/何黎