(Bloomberg) -- Russia said it will suspend harvesting of seaweed by Japanese fisherman around the area of a decades-long territorial dispute from next week while a lighthouse undergoes maintenance.
Russia and Japan have been locked in a disagreement over a group of islands known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan after the Soviet Union seized them at the end of World War II. Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin called the islands a “part of Russia’s sovereign territory.”
Japan recently notified Russia that the lighthouse on the island of Signalny had stopped working and requested that its operation be resumed to ensure safe navigation in the area, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Japanese fishermen have been harvesting seaweed in Russian territorial waters near the island under a bilateral agreement since 1981, according to the statement.
Seaweed harvesting will be halted from July 15 “in the interests of preventing possible incidents” until the maintenance work is completed, the ministry said, without providing a precise time-frame.
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