JAPAN-RUSSIA: Many Smiles, Little Progress on Islands Row

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 20 1998 (IPS) - A just-ended summit between Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Russian President Boris Yeltsin may have projected rapport between the two leaders, but has left lingering dissatisfaction on the part of many Japanese.

To them, the weekend summit at the seaside resort of Kanawa put on display smiles and praises for a successful meeting — but did not bring Japan any closer to getting back four northern islands off Hokkaido that Soviet troops have occupied for the last five decades.

The tiny islands, known as the southern Kuriles by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan, were occupied by Soviet troops at the end of the Pacific War. Since then, the dispute has blocked the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, though diplomatic ties were restored in 1956.

Japan refuses to sign a peace accord till the islands are returned, while Moscow wants joint economic cooperation on the islands as a first step toward a peace treaty. Nevertheless, the official goal for signing the treaty is the year 2000.

Japanese public opinion is typified by remarks Monday by Japan’s largest daily, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’, which said: “It appears that the president (Yeltsin) is trying to take the territorial issue out of the limelight in Russia.”

“Japan must not, however, lose sight of the primary objective of a peace treaty,” it argued.

In opinion polls last year, before Hashimoto met Yeltsin in Siberia in November, 75 percent of respondents laid down the return of the northern islands as condition toward peace.

That may be why many here are not as satisfied as Hashimoto or Yeltsin, who during the visit were photographed in informal garb, linking arms and going fishing together. Hashimoto called Yeltsin ‘Boris’, and Yeltsin called the Japanese premier ‘Ryu’.

“We were able to improve relations in every field. We are very satisfied with the progress we have made,” Hashimoto said.

Yeltsin, whose visit at one point seemed on the verge of cancellation due to turbulent politics at home, agreed heartily.

“If you ask me how many points I give to the meeting on a scale of 100, I say ‘perfect’,” Yeltsin told reporters at the airport Sunday before leaving for Moscow. Yeltsin also invited the Japanese emperor to visit Russia.

Instead of concrete progress on the disputed islands, what emerged from the summit was an agreement to expand economic cooperation despite the territorial dispute.

This is seen in many quarters as a sign that Yeltsin got many of the things he aimed for from the Japanese side, without making significant concessions to resolve the islands dispute.

Yeltsin got from Hashimoto new commitments to look into improving roads, ports and other facilities for processing marine products on the islands.

A joint statement said the two sides would study the provision of generators to the islands which have been plagued by electrical shortages, more humanitarian aid from Japan, and exchange visits between defense officials.

Yeltsin and Hashimoto agreed to put an investment firm, to which each side would invest 50 million U.S. dollars, to boost limited Japanese investments in Russia.

Japanese newspapers argue that Russia got these without a direct pledge on a solution to the dispute, questioning the wisdom of Japan pouring money into the islands when the issue of sovereignty remained unresolved.

The farthest Russia went was to propose that the bilateral peace treaty under negotiation be widened into a “friendship treaty” as well. Yeltsin also said Moscow would study a “serious proposal” — which remained undisclosed — by the Japanese government.

But as crucial as the islands are in Japan’s view, they are also fiercely held on to by Russian officials.

Before Yeltsin arrived in Japan, his newly named prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko said he was against “surrendering Russia’s positions on any issues”, including the Kuril islands. “Nobody is going to give anything away,” Kiriyenko was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass agency as saying.

In Japan, the lack of a major breakthrough underlines how Russia has always been a difficult foreign policy challenge for Tokyo.

While officials here see the need to push sagging bilateral ties forward into the 21st century, they do not seem to know quite how to deal with chaotic Russian politics or with a skillful politician like Yeltsin who now seems, once again, to have managed to delay Japan’s efforts to get the islands back.

But Hans Kimura, an expert on Russian-Japanese history, says Japan did not come away entirely empty-handed. Yeltsin, he observed, turned over to Japan a 300-page list of files of interrogations of Japanese generals by Soviet troops during the Pacific War.

The Japanese generals had been held as prisoners of war in Khabarovsk in the Russian east, and the turnover of the files were welcomed by the families of those soldiers.

“If you look at the present in a cynical way, they (files) could have been offered because Yeltsin could not deliver on the territorial issue,” Kimura pointed out.

It is clear that Hashimoto is having to expand ties with Russia anyway, despite the territorial dispute, because Russia is an important player in global affairs, analysts add.

While Tokyo’s foreign policy is heavily dependent on its ties with the United States, officials have become acutely aware of the need to nurture ties with its neighbour to the northeast.

There are several clues that show Hashimoto appears to be putting the territorial issue on the back burner, including his statement Sunday that Tokyo would dispatch experts from the ministries of foreign affairs, finance and international trade and industry in early May to discuss investment in Russia.

Despite the territorial row, a foreign ministry official argued: “The bilateral relationship is in best shape in 50 years”.