Japanese media reports that Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev next month will visit the Kuril Islands, which are at the center of a heated territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.

Quoting a Russian news agency, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said the Russian prime minister will visit Sakhalin and Iturup, one of the Kuril Islands, via Vladivostok on July second.

Medvedev’s scheduled Kuril Islands visit is noteworthy since it comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to discuss the return of the Kuril Islands to Japan during the last G20 summit in Mexico.

Japan demanded the return of the Kuril Islands to Medvedev while he was serving as Russian president. But Medvedev had flatly rejected the demand, saying the islands are technically under Russian rule.