Basic agreement in Peking summit

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33032, 27 September 1972, Page 15

Basic agreement in Peking summit

OT Z. Press Association—Copyright) PEKING, September 26. With basic agreement already apparently reached on the major issues, the Chinese-Japanese summit meeting got down today to the business of fleshing out the bare bones of a new relationship between 'Tokyo and Peking.

The Japanese Foreign Minister (Mr Masayoshi Ohira) began talks with his opposite number, Chi Peng-fei, of China, centring on the nuts-and-bolts problems involved in the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Chinese mainland after a lapse of more than three decades.

In the afternoon, the Prime Minister (Mr Kakuei Tanaka) picks up the thread of the conversations he began with the Chinese Prime Minister (Chou En-lai) soon after his arrival in Peking vesterdav on a six-day State visit.

In their first two-hour talks, the two Prime Ministers apparently agreed to agree, a substantial step forward in any summit encounter.

Chou and Mr Tanaka gave the measure of their early success in toasts last night at a Peking duck banquet hosted by Chou in the vast main dining hall of the Great Hall of the People. “We expect our talks will achieve complete success,” said Chou.

He recalled 2000 years of cultural contacts and 50 years of “tremendous disaster” visited on China by Japanese militarists since 1894. But in the new mood of Chinese-Japanese euphoria, Chou, aged 74, who was educated in Japan, was in a forgiving mood. “The past not forgotten is a guide for the future,” he said.

“We should firmly bear the experience and the lesson in mind.” Then he said, “Both the Chinese and Japanese nations are great in friendship from generation to generation.” In his remarks at the banquet, Mr Tanaka used the term “profound self-examina-tion,” to express regret and repentance for his country’s past aggression against China.

Chou noted, as did Mr Tanaka, that the social and political systems of Japan and China were different, but said: “This should not be an obstacle to our two countries living together as equals and in friendship.” Chou foresaw the new relationship opening up "broad prospects for the future development of friendly contacts between our two peoples and the expansion of economic and cultural exchanges.” Japanese business interests make no bones about theii belief that recognition will give the nearly SNZB4O million a year trade between the two countries a tremendous boost.

Mr Tanaka, sensitive to the accusation that Japan acts in international affairs as an

i “economic animal” has stressed that economic gain I is not the primary considera- , tion. Seeking to allay anxieties among American allies in the i Pacific, Chou added: “SinoJapanese friendship is not exclusive. It will contribute to the relaxation of tension ; in Asia and the safeguarding 1 of world peace.” The United States gave its i reluctant approval to Mr Tanaka’s overtures towards Peking in the August 31-Sep-tember 1 Hawaii summit. Mr Tanaka, at that time, ; assured President Nixon that the United States-Japan Sec--1 urity Treaty would not be impaired.

It gives the United States the right to use bases in Japan to defend its interests in Asia. The Peking airport ceremonies and the first day banquet paralleled in some ways the reception given to Mr Nixon in February. The arrival was correct but cordial. There was a military band and a review of the 360-man guard of honour. There were no speeches, no diplomats and no crowds, though some of Peking’s citizens gathered in knots on street corners to watch the long motorcade. The banquet struck a more cheerful note.