{"id":1098,"date":"2009-02-18T20:05:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T01:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2009-02-18T20:05:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T01:05:49","slug":"learned-today-medvedev-and-aso-meet-to-discuss-energy-economic-cooperation-by-gregory-shtraks-fp-passport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/18\/learned-today-medvedev-and-aso-meet-to-discuss-energy-economic-cooperation-by-gregory-shtraks-fp-passport\/","title":{"rendered":"Learned Today: Medvedev and Aso meet to discuss energy, economic cooperation &#8211; By Gregory Shtraks &#124; FP Passport"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 212px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Shikotan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"View on Malokurilskoye, Shikotan, Kurils, Russia\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/48\/Shikotan.jpg\/202px-Shikotan.jpg\" alt=\"View on Malokurilskoye, Shikotan, Kurils, Russia\" width=\"202\" height=\"143\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\">Image via <a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Shikotan.jpg\">Wikipedia<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p>Annual trade has now reached $30 billion, tripling in size since 2004. The first phase of the massively expensive <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eastern_Siberia-Pacific_Ocean_oil_pipeline\">ESPO pipeline<\/a>, connecting <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Oil reserves\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oil_reserves\">oil reserves<\/a> in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Siberia\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=60.0,105.0&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=60.0,105.0%20%28Siberia%29&amp;t=h\">Siberia<\/a> with Russia&#8217;s <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Pacific War\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pacific_War\">Pacific<\/a> coast, has been completed and the construction of phase two has been announced. This is rare good news for two economies that have been hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis.<br \/>\nBut it&#8217;s still not all smiles between the two countries. The violent reaction of <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Vladivostok\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Vladivostok\">Vladivostok<\/a>&#8216;s workers to the imposition of a tariff on Japanese vehicles in late December displays the importance of Japanese commerce to Russia&#8217;s remote <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Far East\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Far_East\">Far East<\/a> provinces. More seriously,a Japanese ship carrying \u00a512.8 million worth of medical aid at the request of Russian residents on the disputed <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Kuril Islands\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=46.5,151.5&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=46.5,151.5%20%28Kuril%20Islands%29&amp;t=h\">Kuril Islands<\/a> was turned away in January because the Japanese delegation refused to show disembarkation cards, a move that the Japanese consider tantamount to recognizing Russian sovereignty over the Kurils. T<br \/>\nThe Japanese claim that the Kuril islands -currently under Russian control &#8211; are historically Japanese and were seized illegally by the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Soviet Union\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Soviet_Union\">Soviet Union<\/a> at the end of <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"World War II\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/World_War_II\">World War II<\/a>. <strong>The dispute over the islands has prevented Russia and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Japan\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=35.6833333333,139.766666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=35.6833333333,139.766666667%20%28Japan%29&amp;t=h\">Japan<\/a> from signing a peace treaty and officially ending the war.<\/strong><br \/>\nUntil the Kuril issue is resolved, <strong>Japan and Russia will continue to be in the contradictory position of building ever closer ties while still officially fighting World War II.<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2009\/02\/18\/sayonara_madam_secretary_konnichiwa_gospodin_prizedent\">Medvedev and Aso meet to discuss energy, economic cooperation &#8211; By Gregory Shtraks | FP Passport<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Zemified by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/7fabfc05-6444-40cb-9be6-76825ad64026\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?w=525\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image via Wikipedia Annual trade has now reached $30 billion, tripling in size since 2004. The first phase of the massively expensive ESPO pipeline, connecting oil reserves in Siberia with Russia&#8217;s Pacific coast, has been completed and the construction of phase two has been announced. This is rare good news for two economies that have &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/18\/learned-today-medvedev-and-aso-meet-to-discuss-energy-economic-cooperation-by-gregory-shtraks-fp-passport\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Learned Today: Medvedev and Aso meet to discuss energy, economic cooperation &#8211; By Gregory Shtraks &#124; FP Passport&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,79],"tags":[539,760,804,1231,1283,1319,1487,1527],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learned-today","category-reposts","tag-far-east","tag-japan","tag-kuril-islands","tag-russia","tag-siberia","tag-soviet-union","tag-vladivostok","tag-world-war-ii"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}