Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993 TAG: 9304140054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
JAPAN JOINS WORLD AID TO RUSSIA
Japan, stung by criticism that it sat on the sidelines while others scrambled to help Russian reforms, has prepared its own major aid package for Moscow.Tokyo planned to announce the details today at the opening of a seven-nation aid meeting. News reports said the package would total $1.8 billion.
It will be an important symbolic step for Tokyo, which had to overcome strong public sentiment regarding a long-standing territorial dispute with Moscow.
Foreign ministers of the so-called Group of Seven major industrial nations are holding the two-day emergency meeting to weigh an estimated $30 billion aid package for Russian President Boris Yeltsin's struggling government.
It's a major face-saving measure for Japan. As holder of the rotating chairmanship of the group and host of its full summit in July, Japan was uneasy at being seen as passive in the face of Russia's crisis.
Suggestions that its diplomatic leadership is not commensurate to its economic strength long have been a sore point with Tokyo.
Japan had linked large-scale assistance to Moscow to the resolution of a territorial dispute dating to World War II. Now it has agreed to negotiate separately the return of four islands seized by the Soviets after the war.
"We are not connecting the Tokyo summit process with bilateral relations, including the territorial issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masamichi Hanabusa said.
In a briefing in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky praised the Japanese stance. "We judge highly this fresh, constructive and responsible approach to Russian-Japanese relations," he said.
But Japan still is not in the forefront of aid efforts. Only after prodding from the United States and other Group of Seven partners did it agree to this week's meeting of foreign ministers.
The meeting could yield an important show of support for Yeltsin ahead of Russia's April 25 national referendum on his political future.
Japan also has resisted moving up the full summit, to be held July 7-9 in Tokyo, partly because holding it earlier could interfere with preparations for the June 9 wedding of Crown Prince Naruhito and Masako Owada.
Russia will be represented at this week's talks by Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev. He is expected to couple new appeals for help with assurances that aid will be well used.