The dialogue is to take place at a time when the confrontation between Russia and Japan is growing more acute than ever before over the issue of the Southern Kuriles and it is expected to deal with it as a main agenda item, drawing the attention of the public.

As already known, Russia calls Etorofu, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Habomai located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and Hokkaido the Southern Kuriles while Japan calls them the "Northern Territories."

After the demise of the Cold War Russia and Japan desired mutual approaches and the development of bilateral relations, but they have had still very conflicting views on the territorial issue, the core of their relations.

In order to settle this issue, Russia once expressed its readiness to conclude a peace treaty with Japan and return Habomai and Shikotan to Japan according to the Soviet Union-Japan joint declaration in 1956.

Japan kicked up much fuss, claiming that the joint declaration does not stipulate the territorial issue is settled with the return of the two islands and it is hard to understand why Russia is not ready to return the four islands to Japan.

This attitude made the settlement of the issue more difficult and resulted in rendering the stand of Russia tougher.

Russia said its dominion over the Southern Kuriles was defined by international law as a result of the Second World War, adding that Japan's attempt to change it is little short of denying history.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visited the Kunashiri Island as the head of state of Russia for the first time early in November last year.

This created the tendency of the issue of Kuriles developing into a war of words and competitive visits to Kuriles between the chief executives of the two countries.

At present the issue is leading to the moves for strengthening the effective domination over Kuriles.

The chief of the General Staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation clarified a plan to reinforce and deploy a new-type unit in Kuriles.

The Russian military announced that it would expand the airstrips on the Etorofu Island for military transport Il-76's landing and commission Mistral-class warships in the navy to use them in the Pacific Sea Fleet of Russia. Last year it ordered strategic bombers to fly on a guard mission over the Pacific near Japan for eleven hours.

The presidential envoy to the Far-eastern Region of the Russian Federation said at a press conference held on Feb. 21 Russia would allot a lot of funds and invite foreign investors in order to develop Kuriles.

He went on:

Russia proposed Japan to develop Kuriles together with it and took a series of prudent steps for it. But there was no response from the Japanese side to this. If companies and investors of Japan do not move, people of China and Singapore and other countries will come.

All these measures taken by Russia are aimed to intensify the political, economic and military domination over Kuriles.

For Russia to preserve the right to control Kuriles cannot but be an important element of the general strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region. If the Southern Kuriles are returned to Japan, the United States and Japan will use them to contain the former militarily while the Pacific Sea Fleet of Russia will be difficult to freely move in the Pacific.

The "Northern Territories" present themselves as an important issue for Japan as they help create favorable conditions for reviving the nationalist sentiment at home, turning it into a military giant and staging a comeback to Korea and strengthen its existence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan advocated the Southern Kuriles as part of its inviolable territory in the defense white paper issued by it in last September. Before and after this development the number of intrusions into the Russian territorial waters by Japanese fishing boats increased. It is by no means fortuitous that a national meeting was held at the outset of the year to call for the return of the "Northern Territories" with at least 1,400 persons including the prime minister, the foreign minister and dietmen attending.

There were again voices calling for settling the issue of the Southern Kuriles through "silent diplomacy" between the two countries with the approach of the Russia-Japan strategic dialogue but it is not clear what will be outcome of the dialogue.