Soviets Dash Japan’s Hopes of Regaining Occupied Island Group

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, concluding a five-day official visit to Japan today, dashed Japanese hopes of regaining a group of four small northern islands occupied by Soviet troops since the closing days of World War II.

Soviet refusal to discuss the return of the islands has stood in the way of the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two countries since 1945.

Shevardnadze also lashed out against President Reagan’s “Star Wars” space-based defense program, calling it the most dangerous part of the arms race and accusing the United States of wishing to militarize outer space.

In contrast to what he himself described as an “emotional statement” about arms negotiations, Shevardnadze was generally upbeat about the future of Soviet-Japan relations although he recognized that “many serious problems remain to be settled.”

But while Shevardnadze said he was “satisfied that political dialogue had resumed and would continue,” there was little sign that Japanese and Soviet negotiators had made any headway on such issues as economic cooperation, a renegotiation of a cultural agreement and the return of the southernmost islands of the northern Kurile chain to Japan.

During more than 10 hours of talks with Shevardnadze, Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe stressed that the kind of stepped-up cooperation the Soviet Union hoped to obtain from Japan for the development of Siberian resources and the modernization of the Soviet economy, would have to wait until the establishment “of a more stable political climate” between the two countries.

The Kremlin desperately needs economic assistance from Western industrialized nations in order to achieve Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s promise to double the income of the average Soviet citizen before the year 2000.

Other than signing two minor agreements on taxation and trade payments, and the extension of a cultural arrangement, Japanese and Soviet officials have failed to make headway on the a new cultural agreement by which Japan hopes to establish a cultural center in Moscow, and to obtain guarantees from the Soviets that Russian-language publications printed by the Japanese government are actually distributed to Soviet citizens.

Touching on what the Japanese have come to call the “northern territorial issue,” Shevardnadze dashed Japanese hopes of negotiations aimed at a return of the islands when he stated that any improvement of Soviet-Japanese relations has to “on the basis of existing reality.”

“The Soviet position is well known,” Shevardnadze said.

The Soviet newspaper Pravda said just before Shevardnadze’s arrival here that Japanese claims to the Kurile islands are “unsubstantiated and unlawful.”

The Soviets have stationed thousands of troops on the island group and maintain an air base in the area with a squadron of 40 advanced MIG-23 jet fighters.

Shevardnadze also postponed discussing the resumption of visits by Japanese former residents to ancestral graves on the islands.

Although the Shevardnadze visit, the first by a Soviet foreign minister to Japan in 10 years, has been marked by friendly exchanges, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made it clear to Shevardnadze that he would only accept Gorbachev’s proferred invitation to Moscow if “the results could be welcomed by the Japanese people.”

Said Nakasone, “There have already been four visits by Japanese prime ministers to Moscow.” Nakasone stressed it was time for Gorbachev to come to Japan. The absence of a visit by the top Soviet leader has made Japanese feel that the Soviets do not consider Japan in the league of top powers.

Shevardnadze accused unnamed members of the U.S. Administration of “wishing to distort the true message of the Soviet peace plan,” Gorbachev’s proposal to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000.

He accused the United States of wishing to negotiate an arms agreement which would exclude the Strategic Defense Inititative, popularly called “Star Wars.”

Calling SDI, “the most dangerous part of the arms race,” Shevardnadze accused the United States of “wishing to achieve a disarmament agreement on the ground, only to transfer these same destructive weapons into outer space.”

Describing SDI as logically inconsistent, Shevardnadze stated, why would anyone need weapons in space “if there are no longer weapons on the ground? Who would you aim them at?”