Yeltsin, Hashimoto End Their Countries’ 50-Year Feud

After pledging to sign a belated World War II peace treaty by 2000, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto parted as friends Sunday and left one of the region’s most mutually self-destructive feuds behind them.

Their “no-neckties” summit was intended to create a better atmosphere between the two countries that have much to gain from cooperation but have kept a hostile distance for half a century. The two days of sport and relaxation appeared to have thoroughly changed the diplomatic weather.

Japan has promised to play a more active role in the development of post-Communist Russia, and this resource-rich country in turn has assured Tokyo that it will become a reliable energy supplier and a strategic friend in the dynamic Asian Pacific region.

“This is a major breakthrough in relations between Russia and Japan,” Yeltsin told reporters at the Sosna resort here.

Only a few months ago, prospects for melting away the chill that has characterized relations between Moscow and Tokyo seemed remote, if not hopeless, as Japan demanded that resolution of a territorial dispute be the starting point for any improvement.

The focus of the more than 50-year standoff between the two countries has been four small, rocky islands off Japan’s northern coast that were seized by Soviet troops in the waning days of World War II. Japan long has made return of the territory, known in Russia as the southern Kuril Islands, a condition for signing a World War II peace treaty.

But Hashimoto became the first postwar Japanese leader to drop the “islands first” policy when he proclaimed in July that the two neighbors should repair their ties on the basis of “mutual benefit, mutual trust and long-term vision.”

Yeltsin had indicated only two months ago that Moscow was in no rush to conclude the peace treaty, and other Kremlin officials lately have talked about the process possibly continuing for decades.

But Yeltsin was more accommodating at this laid-back Siberian summit and appeared to endorse the view that the two countries have much to gain if they put the past firmly behind them.

“We have to learn to understand Japan and the Japanese people,” Yeltsin said, noting that Russia has long given priority to relations with Western countries while a potentially important ally was neglected in its Pacific backyard.

How the two nations will compromise on the thorny issue of the islands remains to be seen. However, by surging ahead with economic and military cooperation plans, the leaders appear to be trying to build a partnership that will be too important to sacrifice in a standoff that is more about saving face than territorial value.

The four islands are economically insignificant, although the surrounding waters are rich in seafoods important to the Russian economy and the Japanese diet.

Yeltsin and Hashimoto agreed to complete an accord on fishing near the islands by year’s end. They also agreed to pursue investment, training and trade deals, to be hammered out by a bilateral commission committed to drawing more Japanese investment to Russia in exchange for energy supplies and security arrangements.

First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov, who heads the Russian side of the commission, implied to reporters that swift return of the Kurils to Japan would be difficult because the Russian Constitution--largely written by Yeltsin--proclaims the territorial integrity of the country inviolable and the president its guarantor.

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Any transfer of territory to another country would require support from the parliament, and Russia’s lower house, the Duma, is controlled by Communists and nationalists who would be unlikely to endorse such a concession.

But with their unstated agreement to relegate the Kurils to the back burner while promising business projects get off the ground, Yeltsin and Hashimoto seemed confident that some accommodation will suggest itself.

The Kurils are of most importance to Japanese whose relatives’ graves are on the islands, and what little tourism there is consists of descendants’ visits. Among the proposals being considered, Japan would invest to improve the tourist infrastructure in return for a say in how the islands would be administered and developed.

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov is expected to visit Tokyo this month to press on with the progress achieved at the Siberian summit.

Yeltsin has agreed to visit Japan for another informal summit with Hashimoto in April.