MOSCOW: Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Moscow will deploy new weapons on the Kuril Islands which are at the centre of a territorial dispute with Japan, the TASS state news agency TASS reported.

Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty formally ending the conflict between them that dates back to World War Two, with the Kuril Islands – which Japan calls the Northern Territories – remaining the primary stumbling block between the two sides.

TASS cited Medvedev as saying that Russia was not against signing a peace treaty with Japan, but only if Tokyo no longer disputed the islands’ status.

Reuters