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Time - Man of the Year
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK WORLD, Page 16Lose Some, Win Some
Yeltsin gives Tokyo the cold shoulder but warms up to Taipei
Boris Yeltsin would have liked nothing more than to return
from his state visit to Tokyo with Japanese promises of aid for
his country's wrecked economy. But the price of Japan's help
proved too high for the Russian President, who abruptly canceled
the long-planned trip just four days before he was to depart. The
reason: months of tense negotiations failed to resolve a
47-year-old territorial dispute over a group of islands in the
Kurile chain north of Japan.
Tokyo has long refused to join other industrialized
democracies in providing direct economic aid to Russia until
Moscow handed back sovereignty over the thinly populated
islands, which the Soviet Union seized in the waning days of
World War II. But Yeltsin had little bargaining room;
nationalist opposition groups in Moscow threaten to call for the
President's impeachment if he caves in to Japanese demands.
Rather than return from Japan empty-handed, Yeltsin simply
reneged. In Tokyo one newspaper blamed the cancellation on the
Japanese government, saying it was the result of "poor diplomacy
by third-class politicians."
While relations with one Asian nation faltered, Yeltsin
was expanding ties with an old nemesis in the region -- Taiwan.
In deference to Beijing, the former Soviet government had
refused any contact with Taipei. But the risk of Beijing's wrath
did not stop Russia and Taipei from announcing plans to
establish unofficial relations, the same level of ties Taiwan
maintains with many other countries. Yeltsin hopes for the
result that he failed to achieve with Japan: increased
investment in Russia.