Russia, Japan crisis talks end in failure

The crisis talks between Russia and Japan over four Pacific islands ended in acrimonious failure yesterday when Tokyo reaffirmed its claim on the chain and Moscow accused its neighbour of extreme behaviour.
The two-hour meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Seiji Maehara was marked by an icy atmosphere and indications of an increasingly tense stalemate in the Kuril Islands dispute.
Japan slapped down a Russian proposal to form a joint commission to help resolve the crisis and the two diplomats notably failed to discuss a mooted visit to Moscow by Japanese Prime Minister Nato Kan.
"We could not bridge our differences," the Japanese foreign minister said flatly after talks that included a brief but unscheduled one-on-one meeting with Lavrov.
The difficult talks opened with the two delegations staring coldly at each other from opposite sides of a long table and Lavrov telling Maehara in a stern voice that he found Japan's recent actions unacceptable.
"To be honest, I expected to receive you in Moscow against a better backdrop," a stern-looking Lavrov said as he opened the talks.
"Your visit comes against the background of a series of completely unacceptable actions," he added.
The meeting followed a tense week in which the Japanese prime minister called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's November visit to the islands an "unforgivable outrage" and a bullet was mailed to Moscow's embassy in Tokyo.