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TOKYO, November 8 (Itar-Tass) - Japan’s government has taken a decision to
stop humanitarian aid supplies to the Southern Kuriles as of the next financial
year that begins on April 1, 2010, diplomatic sources told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
“The aid we had provided was humanitarian and it will not be supplied in a
compulsory manner,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
In August, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said “it had informed the Japanese
embassy in Moscow that the Russian side had taken a decision to stop receiving
Japan’s humanitarian consignments intended for two municipal entities of the
Sakhalin region.”
The Japanese side “was given sincere gratitude for assistance it had been
providing since the beginning of the 1990s that helped to overcome social and
economic problems in the Southern Kuriles aggravated by the devastating
earthquake of 1994.” “The Japanese partners were informed that there was no need
for receiving humanitarian aid supplies from Japan in the future.”
What Russia calls the Southern Kuriles are known in Japan as the Northern
territories.
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