Russia warns Japan over Pacific isles

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 8

Russia warns Japan over Pacific isles

NZPA-Reuter

Moscow

The Soviet Union has warned Japan that if it pursued its claims to four Russian-held Pacific islands, this could only poison relations between the two countries.

The warning was issued by the Government news agency, Tass, in a commentary on what it described as an unprecedented v : sit by the Japanese Foreign Minister (Mr Kiichi Miyazawa) to inspect the islands — which are at the end of the southern Kuriles archipelago — from a Japanese patrol boat last week-end.

Last Saturday the Soviet authorities arrested a Japanese fishing boat with six people aboard a few hours before Mr Miyazawa set off for the islands. “The present campaign can only be seen as an attempt to play up artificial and non-existent problems in order to worsen SovietJapanese relations,” the Tass commentary said. “Raising groundless and illegal claims against the Soviet Union can only cause estrangement between the two countries and poison the spirit of good neighbourliness that has grown up over the last 20 years since diplomatic relations were established.”

The wording of the commentary bore a close similarity to earlier Russian rejections of Japanese claims to the islands, which the Soviet Union occupied at the end of the Second World War.

Japan has refused to sign a peace treaty with the Soviet Union formally ending the war until the islands — which Japan calls its “Northern Territories” — are returned.