| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Tokyo Reiterates Claims on South Kuril Islands
Japan has offered Russia to go back to active talks on the status of the South Kuril Islands after six years of diplomatic slumbers to resolve the dispute in two steps. First, Japan suggests Moscow should hand to Tokyo the smallest part of the archipelago as soon as possible and then in any form recognize Japan’s sovereignty over the remaining “biggest half”, the most developed and densely populated part. Moscow is not likely to agree with the idea but Tokyo’s renewed efforts mean that this initiative will be followed by others. ITAR-TASS’s correspondent in Tokyo Vasily Golovnin reports for Kommersant.
Tête-à-Tête Conversation
Japan’s former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori laid down his country’s proposals before Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in St. Petersburg on December 21 after opening the first Toyota’s assembly plant in the region, Japanese media reported Monday. Official reports said that it was a tête-à-tête conversation which focuses on “the current state and outlook of Russian-Japanese relations”.
Unofficial sources added that pick up the almost forgotten Irkutsk declaration of March 2001. The paper was signed by President Putin and Mr. Mori himself when he was heading the cabinet.
The Irkutsk declaration recognizes the primary legal importance of the 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration for peace treaty talks. The 1956 declaration left behind the state of war between the two nations, restored bilateral diplomatic and trade links and secured the return of Japanese prisoners of war to their home. The Soviet Union also expressed willingness in the document to hand over the smallest part of the South Kuril, the Shikotan Island and adjacent desert isles that the Japanese call Khabomai as an act of goodwill. But this could be possible only after a peace treaty to cement the results of WWII is signed. The 1956 declaration is still the only document of this kind in the bilateral relations.
President Putin said back in 2000 that he recognizes the 1956 declaration and made clear that his views these concessions as the best Russia could give. He added that the document says nothing about the form, terms or timing for the “transfer of islands”. The Japanese were not happy about it. They were steadfast in their demands fifty years ago that they needed to get not only Shikotan and Habomai back but all South Kuril Islands. The 2001 Irkutsk declaration came as a sort of compromise. It pointed to the importance of the 1956 agreement but also pledged adherence to accords reached during Boris Yeltsin’s visit to Japan in 1993. The 1993 Tokyo declaration sees a peace treaty signed as soon as the whole South Kuril issue is resolved.
When Being Passive Doesn’t Mean Losing
Yoshiro Mori and his allies suggested back in 2001 holding separate talks on Shikotan-Khabomai and the remaining Kunashir and Iturup. They thought that the smallest part of the islands would be returned to Japan with no problems under the 1956 joint declaration and only the rest of the islands had to be negotiated. The Mori plan looked naive in Moscow’s eyes and had no chance since the moment it was put forward. Russia’s then Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in 2002 called reports on separate talks for different parts of the South Kuril Islands “fantasies and fables”. Conservative officials in Tokyo were also wary of the idea. Rumors appeared that “two flows” of negotiations may end with some traitors signing a peace treaty for Japan to content itself to the smallest and poorly developed part of the South Kuril Islands.
The idea was ditched as soon as Yoshiro Mori stepped down. His successors, Junichiro Koizumi and Shindzo Abe, went back to the old stance urging Moscow to agree to Japan’s sovereignty over all South Kuril Islands. At the same time, they were ready to be flexible with terms and timing. Two previous Japanese governments put no pressure on Moscow and peace treaty talks virtually died out. This passive attitude, however, did no harm as trade between the two countries double and tripled over the period and the Japanese industrial business went to Russia with strategic investments.
Unofficial sources in Tokyo say that the Mori plan matches the position of the new government led by Yasuo Fukuda. “I called it ‘parallel consultations’ in Irkutsk,” Mr. Mori said in a television interview. “Now let Fukuda’s diplomacy deal with it.”
Minister Braces Himself for Hara-Kiri
Even the greatest optimists would not believe that today’s Russia will timidly return to Japan some of the Kuril Islands, will then negotiate the remaining half, recognize Japan’s sovereignty there and will get a peace treaty in return at the end. Mr. Mori’s initiative may have different reasons behind it such as the ex-prime minister’s striving to regain the lost influence, get a rough idea of opinions of the Russian leadership “after May 2008”, an attempt to restart talks from slumbers peace treaty without any concession or to hear Russia’s views and get ready for a more daring compromise. A high-placed Kommersant source said in October that Tokyo was considering signing the peace treaty as soon as Shikotan and Khabomai are returned. But Moscow needs to give its official approval of the ensuing talks on the rest of the islands after that so that they have the status of the islands in dispute. The source added that the conversation, however, did not mean that the proposal would be put forward.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in October they had no idea of such initiative. Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told the Parliament responding to a question from an MP that he would “commit hara-kiri” if these words come true. But it is easy to see that words of the Kommersant source are just one of the options to enforce the Mori plan which was suggested several months later if the government decides to be serious about it.
Vasily Golovnin
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 25, 2007
|
|
|
