Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Russia concerned about Japanese military build-up
TOKYO: Japan's potential military build-up in the face of a threat by North Korea is a cause of concern for its neighbours who want more international defence cooperation, the Russian ambassador to Tokyo said on Monday.
Press reports have said Japan is considering developing offensive weapons for the first time since World War II and building missile components with the United States.
"I think that our military circles are closely watching what is being done about those points," Russian Ambassador Alexander Losyukov told reporters.
"I think that cooperation between Japan and the United States, which is of course their sovereign affairs, is the rather unfortunate ... result of the deterioration of the situation in this area, mainly related to the uncertain situation around the Korean Peninsula," he said. He called instead for international defence cooperation to safeguard against any "unfortunate developments" from North Korea.
"We understand the concerns of both the United States and Japan regarding the possible threat, be it the Korean threat or the terrorist threat," he said. "We think that at the same time it creates certain problems and certain concerns among neighbouring countries like Russia, China and some others," he said.
"It would have been better to do it by some joint efforts. But this is not the case unfortunately."
Japan is expected to present an outline in the coming days of its new defence policy, which according to press reports will label North Korea and China as threats.
North Korea is stalling on returning to six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.
Japan and Russia have yet to sign a treaty to put them formally at peace amid Japan's demands to be given back the four Kuril islands off its coast which were seized by Soviet troops in the 1945. Japan in mid-November threw cold water on a Russian proposal to return two of the islands. The Russian ambassador summed up Tokyo's position as an "ultimatum". "Japan thinks that it was groundlessly offended by Russia in the end of the Second World War and unjustly deprived of four southern Kuril Islands," Losyukov said, saying that for Tokyo "no deviation from this position is possible".
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