Gorbachev Unveils Plan for Asian Security, Cooperation : Diplomacy: His comment about ‘definition of territory’ arouses the most interest in Japan.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his crucial role in ending Europe’s East-West divide, on Wednesday unveiled proposals for a continent-wide security framework for Asia, to begin with a “Big Five” conference involving the superpowers.

“Asia and the Pacific, whose inhabitants make up half of the world’s total population, face a host of economic, ethnic, social, religious, environmental and other highly complex problems. No country can cope with them single-handedly,” Gorbachev said.

“Therefore, we feel that the idea of a multilateral forum on security and cooperation remains as relevant as ever. Sooner or later, life will make us accept that idea,” he told Japan’s Parliament in his first major analysis of Asian affairs since September, 1988.

Repeating the Kremlin’s commitment to slash its military presence in Asia, Gorbachev--on a four-day official visit to Japan--challenged the United States, Japan and other maritime powers in the region to do likewise, saying that such moves would ensure even larger Soviet reductions.

In his speech, which was interrupted seven times by polite applause but aroused little apparent enthusiasm in his audience, Gorbachev made a series of specific recommendations, including:

* As a first step, a conference attended by the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, China and India to precede the previously proposed meeting in 1993 of foreign ministers of all countries of Asia and the Pacific.

* Trilateral U.S.-Soviet-Japanese consultations “to remove suspicions and build confidence through concrete agreements.”

* Creation of a “zone of cooperation” in the Sea of Japan and northeast Asia, which would link the resource-rich but undeveloped Soviet Far East and Siberia to “the emerging economic complex of Asia and the Pacific.”

* Conclusion of a formal peace agreement between Moscow and Tokyo. “It is totally unacceptable that the U.S.S.R. and Japan should still have no peace treaty that would legally draw the line under World War II,” Gorbachev said.

* A formal dialogue between the Soviet Union and Japan on military matters.

Members of the Japanese Parliament and the country’s security establishment showed little initial enthusiasm for Gorbachev’s suggestions. “His proposals for arms withdrawals from Asia and the Pacific are not new to us,” observed Haruki Wada, director of the Social Science Research Center at Tokyo University.

For the Japanese press, the headline-grabbing passage in Gorbachev’s speech had nothing to do with Asian security. Instead, they highlighted his admission--added to the advance text--that the Soviet Union and Japan have a problem over “definition of territory.”

For the Japanese, even that vague phrasing signals a perceptible change in the Kremlin’s stance on four disputed islands off Hokkaido, which the Red Army seized in 1945 and which Japan wants returned.

The issue has dominated the talks between Gorbachev and Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu since they opened Tuesday.

Because of the dispute, the leaders added a fourth round of negotiations to their schedule today, although there was no sign that any agreement was close. They remained so far apart that they were having trouble drawing up a joint communique to be issued at the end of Gorbachev’s stay.

For want of Soviet concessions on the territorial issue, Japan refuses to sign a World War II peace treaty with Moscow or to actively promote the bilateral trade and investment now critically needed by the Soviets.

Gorbachev’s Asian version of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe also got a lukewarm reception from Kaifu, who heard about it during a 2 1/2-hour meeting the leaders held Wednesday morning on foreign policy matters.

According to Japanese officials, Kaifu replied that Japan prefers to tackle problems in Asia one at a time. With its neighbors always on the lookout for any signs of a renaissance of Japanese militarism, Kaifu said Japan “has no intention of becoming a military power again” and thus doesn’t need negotiations on defense matters.

The leaders also touched on the Middle East, disputes in Korea and Cambodia, and East-West relations. Vitaly N. Ignatenko, Gorbachev’s spokesman, said the Soviet leader expressed deep respect for President Bush and his unshakable commitment to good superpower relations.

“The United States has a President who has a very high degree of reliability, broad-scale thinking and a principled approach,” Gorbachev was quoted as saying. “I firmly adhere to the path of cooperation and partnership (with the United States) and have no intention of diverting from it.”

A separate round of talks in the afternoon, dominated by the territorial dispute, had moments of tense disagreement, officials from both countries said.

At a Wednesday breakfast with Socialist Party leader Takako Doi, Gorbachev said that as a politician, he felt bound to respect Soviet public opinion, which rejects the cession of any territory to Japan.

Gorbachev’s speech to Parliament included some candid discussion of his domestic problems. It was his third major statement on Asian affairs since a seminal 1986 speech in Vladivostok, which proclaimed the new “bonds of interdependence” in Asia and the Soviet Union’s desire to be a key player.

Despite the spectacular rapprochement with China, the Kremlin’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and traditional good relations with India, the Soviet Union continues to be frozen out of much of Asia. The region’s biggest country in territorial terms and its greatest military power continues to have far less clout, especially in economic affairs, than the United States or Japan.

In his address, Gorbachev also said the Soviet Union this year was cutting the manpower of units deployed east of the Ural Mountains by 200,000 men. Twelve army divisions will be cut and 11 air force regiments disbanded. The Soviet Pacific Fleet will take nine large surface ships and seven submarines out of operation.

Japanese specialists said the cuts outlined by Gorbachev had been already mentioned in a statement he issued in May, 1989.

Gorbachev is scheduled to do some sightseeing today, including a tour of Shinjuku Park in Tokyo, where the cherry trees are in blossom.