China urges Japan to uphold post-WWII international order

China urges Japan to uphold the international order established after World War II through international legal documents such as the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun has said.

Responding to a question about China’s position on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the southern Kuril Islands, which Japan claims as its own, he noted that China maintains that the outcomes of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War should be earnestly respected, Caliber.Az reports.

“China urges the Japanese side to abide by the postwar international order enshrined in the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and other international legal instruments,” he added.

The 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Declaration of the Allied powers stipulated restrictions on Japan’s postwar sovereignty.

Under the documents, Japan was to be stripped of territories it had seized by force, including southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuril Islands.

Earlier, a Telegraph report described Putin’s visit to the Kuril Islands as a move that signals Moscow’s growing willingness to challenge Tokyo while reinforcing Russia’s territorial claims in the Pacific.

The island has been administered by Moscow since Soviet forces seized the Kurils in 1945.

The report said the visit marks a departure from Putin’s previous approach to the disputed islands.

Despite being aware of Japan’s sensitivities over the territory, he had avoided visiting the archipelago until now.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi condemned the trip as “absolutely unacceptable”, saying it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people”.

She noted that this visit can only be said to have further hardened anti-Russia sentiment within Japan and made the medium to long-term recovery of relations more difficult.

The Kremlin’s move was more than a symbolic provocation, however. It also reflects a broader shift in relations between Moscow and Tokyo and the changing balance of power in the region.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov