Abe-Putin meetings in Vladivostok highlight the need for regional statesmanship

Tokyo

THERE were elements of showmanship and even brinkmanship evident in the Vladivostok meetings last week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - but rather less in the way of statesmanship.

Their encounters in the Russian Far East port city ended rather inconclusively with no clear end in sight to the territorial dispute that has held back Russo-Japan relations since the end of World War II - in the same way that North Korea has remained technically in a state of conflict with the US and Japan since the end of the Korean War.

President Putin and Mr Abe spoke last Saturday of their shared desire to settle a territorial dispute over a group of small islands that are situated off the north…