Caso studio: La contesa russo-nipponica per le Isole Curili

Caso studio:La contesa russo-nipponica per le Isole CuriliUniversit degli Studi di CagliariDipartimento Scienze Sociali e IstituzioniCorso di Storia e Geopolitica dellAsia Marittima

Kuril Islands

Source: www.storicamente.org

Kuril Islands

Source: it.wikipedia.org

Sakhalin Island

Source: www.gonomad.com

Kuril Islands: some data.....56 volcanic islandsTotal area: 10.335 kmqPopulation: around 20.000 inhabitantsNative people: Ainu (today disappeared)

Early Relations1855: Shimoda treaty; boundary is fixed between the Islands of Iturup (Etorofu) and Urup1875: Treaty for the Exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands; as product of long negotiations, Kuril Islands became Japanese territory and Sakhalin Island became Russian territory

Russian-Japanese War

Source: www.portunato.it

Russian-Japanese WarRussian-Japanese dispute on ManchuriaFebruary 8, 1904 September 5, 1905Port ArthurYalu RiverNanshanLiaoyangMukdenTsushimaSeptember 5, 1905: Portsmouth Treaty

Russian-Japanese relations: 1905-1989August 1945: Soviet declaration of war to Japan and occupation of Kuril IslandsJalta and Postdam conferences: Japan must renounce to Kuril Islands1952: San Francisco treaty; Treaty of peace between Japan and Allied forces, but Soviet Union didnt sign it; this is the origin of the actual dispute: Japan now refers to the Shimoda Treaty, that assigned the 4 Southern Kuril Islands to Tokyo; in the Tokyo view, these islands had never been Russian before 1945; more, administrative speaking, these 4 islands haf never been Kuril Islands

4 Southern Kuril Islands

Source: letterapolitica.it

Russian-Japanese relations: TradeDecline of trade relations during 1990sSince 2003, recovery and growth of trade relations, excluded the period 2008-2009, due the international crisisTotal trade turnover in 2011: 29,7 billion USDJapan is the second largest Russias economic partner following China

Main issuesEnergy issue: gold, silver, oil, gasMilitary issue: Russian bases (Kunashir and Iturup) since 2011Nationalism: Putin and AbeUnsigned WWII Peace Treaty

BibliografiaViacheslav Amirov, Russia, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, 2012, http://www.apcss.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Chapter10.pdfDmitry Gorenburg, The Southern Kuril Islands Dispute, PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 226, September 2012, http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pepm_226_Gorenburg_Sept2012.pdfDmitri Trenin and Yuval Weber, Russias Pacific Future - Solving the South Kuril Islands Dispute, The Carnegie Papers, December 2012, http://carnegieendowment.org/files/russia_pacific_future_upd.pdfAlessandro Uras, La disputa sulle Isole Curili riporta la Russia nel Pacifico, 18 luglio 2012, http://www.meridianionline.org/2012/07/18/disputa-isole-curili-russia-pacifico/