Neighbours and treaties in East Asia

Press, 7 April 1978, Page 12

Neighbours and treaties in East Asia

By

STUART McMillan

of “The Press’’

The long saga of the Soviet Union's pressing Japan to sign a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with it took a strange new turn late in February of this year. The Soviet Union, which had apparently given up on the hope that Japan would act quickly, wanted instead to conclude a Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Co-operation, and when Japan showed only a minor interest, released the text of its draft. The draft appeared in “Izvestia” on February 24. At a Cabinet meeting on the same day, the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Fukuda) announced that he had no intention of even reading the draft. Japan and the Soviet Union have not signed a peace treaty since World War 11. The Soviet Union took some islands to the north of Japan which were formerly Japanese. Japan has insisted that a peace treaty depends on whether the Soviet Union returns the islands The Soviet Union says that the islands are not an issue. Insult was added to injury when the Soviet Union declared its 200-mile fishing zone in 1977 and Japanese fishermen were excluded from their northern territories. The Soviet Union proposed that since Japan was not ready to sign a peace treaty with" it. then the two countries should conclude a treaty ot good neighbourliness. The Soviet Union handed over its draft of such a treaty when the Japanese Foreign Minis-

ter (Mr Sonada) visited Moscow early in January this year. Mr Sonada said then that Japan was not prepared to consider the Soviet draft until a peace treaty had been concluded. The Soviet draft text includes the following provisions:

The aim of the parties is to strengthen peace in Asia and the Pacific, and throughout the world, and to end th# arms race;

The parties shall not allow the use of their territories for actions that could threaten the other, and shall refrain from actions that would encourage any third party to take aggressive action against the other treaty partner;

Provisions relating to cooperation in trade, science, and technology, conservation of biological resources, and cultural and information exchanges; Article 12 provides that the parties "do not claim and do not recognise anyone's claims tu any special rights or advantages in world affairs, including claims to domination in Asia and in the area of the Far East”; Article 13 provides that the treaty is not directed against any third country.

Articles 12 and 13. however. seem to be directed against clauses in a treaty

under discussion between China and Japan of peace and friendship. At China’s insistence an “anti-hegemony” clause has been inserted in the text. Japan is reluctant to sign the treaty, in spite of the $2O billion trade agreement it signed with China on February 16, in case that clause upsets the Soviet Union. Japan has proposed that an explanation that it is not directed against the Soviet Union (though who else?) be included. The release of the text of the proposed treaty by the Soviet Union appears to be a Soviet attempt to put pressure on Japan to put aside the territorial issue in the interests of better relations. So far this ploy has not worked. Besides the dispute over the northern territories, Japan has shown considerable suspicion of the Soviet Union — a suspicion that is not lessened by the considerable Soviet fleet based on the other side of the Sea of Japan at Vladivostok.

Soviet attitudes to Japan are governed partly by a policy of the encirclement of China, partly by a wish to prevent the’ influence of China spreading, partly by a wish to stop the signing of a Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan, and partly by a wish to interest Japan in developing the resources of Siberia. On the whole Soviet policy in Asia cannot be seen as flourishing when it fails to get on with the two giants of the area, China, and Japan.