The joint economic activities in the southern Kuril Islands may pave that way for a “mutually acceptable solution” on the peace treaty between Russia and Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Russian president, on his part, said that both Russia and Japan were “satisfied with the state of dialogue” on the five earlier agreed areas of cooperation in the islands, including aquaculture, greenhouse farms, package tours, wind power and waste processing. Russia and Japan still haven’t signed a peace treaty after the World War Two, and a major stumbling block is Tokyo disputing the four southern Kuril Islands, which became part of Soviet Union in 1945. During the Saturday talks, Putin also urged the sides involved in the settlement of the North Korean nuclear tensions to “show restraint,” while Abe vowed that Tokyo will work closely with Moscow to defuse the situation.