Japan, Soviet Union Sign Financial and Cultural Agreements

The foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Japan signed financial and cultural agreements Saturday, and their governments exchanged invitations for their leaders to visit each other’s countries.

Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the first Soviet foreign minister to visit Japan in a decade, arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday and held four meetings with his Japanese counterpart, Shintaro Abe.

Attention during his visit has focused on how the two sides will deal with what Japan calls the Northern Territories, four small but strategic islands off northern Japan occupied by the Soviet Union since 1945 but claimed by Japan.

Dispute over the islands, where the Soviets have stationed 10,000 troops and 40 advanced jet fighters, has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty after World War II.

News reports said the two sides have agreed on the wording of references to the issue and will issue a joint communique today. Japanese Foreign Ministry officials declined to confirm the reports.

During a 90-minute meeting Saturday between Shevardnadze and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official quoted the Soviet minister as saying it would be “possible to agree on an overall communique in a spirit of constructive and mutual respect.”

Nakasone told Shevardnadze that he agrees “with the idea of continuing negotiations on the peace treaty, upon the confirmation of the 1973 joint communique, and he is glad it has become possible to issue a communique,” the official said.

In 1973, the two nations agreed to resolve “various problems that have been left unresolved since World War II,” a deliberately vague reference to the islands, and to negotiate a peace treaty.

The Japanese would view any reference to the islands as a major diplomatic victory, because in recent years the Soviets have consistently refused to acknowledge that any territorial dispute exists.

During their meeting, Shevardnadze delivered to Nakasone a letter from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev inviting Nakasone to Moscow.

Nakasone reciprocated the invitation but told Shevardnadze that four Japanese prime ministers have been to Moscow, while no top Soviet leader has ever visited Japan. Japan has long extended an open invitation for such a visit and takes Moscow’s refusal as a sign that it does not consider Japan a significant power.

The last official consultations between top leaders from the two countries occurred in 1973, when Kakuei Tanaka met Leonid I. Brezhnev in Moscow.

Nakasone also said he could accept the invitation to visit the Soviet Union only if it would bring results and if it was supported by the Japanese public. This apparently was a reference to Japanese desires for action on its claim to the four northern islands.

Although no final agreement was reached on the visits, Gorbachev’s invitation appeared to mark another step foward in a thaw in relations between the Soviet Union and Japan, which is a close U.S. ally.

The Trade and Payment agreement for 1986-90 signed by the foreign ministers provides for currency, transportation of commodities, annual trade consultations and methods of solving trade conflict between the two nations, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

It includes provisions for economic cooperation consultations, including the development of Siberia. The Soviets have been eager to boost trade with Japan, which fell from $5.5 billion in 1982 to $3.9 billion in 1984.

A tax agreement aims to adjust the right to impose taxes on profits from business, operation of ships and aircraft in international traffic, dividends, interest, royalties and remuneration, and to avoid double taxation, the ministry’s statement said.

The two sides extended through 1988 a cultural agreement providing for exchanges of personnel, publications and film festivals.