Quietly, Japan and Russia mend ties

[FG Lurker]

Quietly, Japan and Russia mend ties
The New York Times via The International Herald Tribune, January 11

KHABAROVSK, Russia The Russian Army general gamely tried on a samurai helmet, the gift of a Japanese general who visited here recently. Then the Japanese general donned a Russian fur hat and watched Russian tanks grind across the snow-covered taiga.

[...]

Naval and coast guard visits have become annual affairs. Bilateral trade was up 50 percent through September. Japan has become the largest foreign investor in the oil and gas projects of Sakhalin, the largest foreign investment in Russia today. Toyota, Japan's largest corporation, has announced plans to build an auto plant in Russia.

After decades of hot and cold war, Russia and Japan are coming together in the face of a rising China.

(Complete Article)

[mas]

The Russian Army general gamely tried on a samurai helmet, the gift of a Japanese general who visited here recently. Then the Japanese general donned a Russian fur hat and watched Russian tanks grind across the snow-covered taiga.

Ah, what silliness people do in the name of bilateral relations. Am I the only one who wants to see a picture of this?

[FG Lurker]

Ah, what silliness people do in the name of bilateral relations. Am I the only one who wants to see a picture of this?

I'd sooner have a bit of silliness than yet another shooting war...

It's a good thing NK doesn't have oil. Shrub would attack and Krazy Kim would lob a nuke at Tokyo.

[puargs]

I actually really like to see this kind of formal establishment of ties... Kim doesn't seem to have too much shit with Russia, but if he tries something on Japan, he will. Not that I think he would, but a safety net is always cool.


Edit: Spelling errors?! ME?

[ChrisRT]

After decades of hot and cold war, Russia and Japan are coming together in the face of a rising China.

Right on!!! I hope the whole of Asia can come together as a show of force to detour china from doing anything stupid.

[FG Lurker]

Right on!!! I hope the whole of Asia can come together as a show of force to detour china from doing anything stupid.

It'd be nice... I think China can count on centuries-old rivalries and outright nationalistic hatred to keep Asia split apart though.

Talk about easy divide-and-conquer. Half the work's already done!

[Captain Japan]

RADIATION CONCERNS:Russia ships spent nuke fuel through Soya Strait near Hokkaido
Asahi

Japanese nuclear experts fear the vessel and its containers are not up to international standards.

Russia has been using a Soviet-era ship to transport spent nuclear fuel near Hokkaido and through the Sea of Japan, raising concerns about possible radioactive contamination in northern Japan, nuclear industry officials said.

Despite the risks of moving such highly radioactive material, Moscow is under no legal obligation to inform Tokyo of such shipments, Japanese government officials say.

But Russian authorities provided a map of the ship's route to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) in autumn 2003. Until now, the route of the Russian vessel was not known.

The spent fuel is taken from dismantled nuclear-powered submarines at a plant in a suburb of Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The fuel is then loaded on a ship which passes through the Soya Strait, the narrow strip of water that separates Hokkaido and Russia's Sakhalin, according to JAIF officials....the rest

[ChrisRT]

Right on!!! I hope the whole of Asia can come together as a show of force to detour china from doing anything stupid.

It'd be nice... I think China can count on centuries-old rivalries and outright nationalistic hatred to keep Asia split apart though.

Talk about easy divide-and-conquer. Half the work's already done!

You might be underestimating what a local threat and a little U.S. influence could do... I'm sure if it came to it that South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and maybe even Russia would be al over China. There are already Russian sailors saying that the U.S. and Russian Navy would 'have to put the PRC navy in check' in the near future...

[Samurai_Jerk]

You might be underestimating what a local threat and a little U.S. influence could do... I'm sure if it came to it that South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and maybe even Russia would be al over China. There are already Russian sailors saying that the U.S. and Russian Navy would 'have to put the PRC navy in check' in the near future...

That wouldn't be much of a problem.

[FG Lurker]

Japan calls for isles compromises with Russia
chinadaily.com, May 19, 2005

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, in a published interview, called for mutual compromises with Russia to end a territorial dispute over the Russian-held Kuril isles.

"If the two countries are to reach an agreement, that would mean both would have to compromise something. There will not be an agreement unless compromises are made," Machimura told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper.

[...]

Japan has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Japan in a bid to help the two nations make progress towards signing a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Putin met on the sidelines of commemorations for the end of World War II in Moscow earlier this month and agreed that plans for such a visit were making steady progress.

(Full Story)

So they can agree that the plans for the visit are making progress! Well, I guess it is something...

I wonder what sorts of "compromises" Machimura has in mind... Probably something like "Okay, we're still gonna give it to you up the ass, but we'll let you turn around to keep the sun out of your eyes."

(Actually, I do think that Russia should return the islands, though I have doubts that it will happen.)

[Mulboyne]

Interesting development...

Novosti: Putin dismisses idea of giving Kuril Islands to Japan

NOVO-OGARYOVO (Moscow Region), June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has never thought that it should give any of the Kuril Islands to Japan, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. "I should say that Russia has never thought that it should give the islands [to Japan]," he said at a meeting with news agency heads from G8 nations. Putin said that Russia had signed a declaration with Japan in 1956 on giving it two islands. But he added "it [the document] did not define under which conditions and whose sovereignty" the islands should be given. "These are the questions that were left open in the declaration," Putin said.

[Buraku]

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