Russia and North-East Asia

Russia has recently strengthened its diplomatic relations with its Northeast Asian neighbors--China, Japan, and North and South Korea. But without much more reform at home, Russia will neither be attractive as a partner nor live up to its full potential. Author Chikahito Harada shows how Sino-Russian di??tente has effectively stalled, although Russian arms sales to Beijing are of growing concern to the West. Harada asserts that Russia remains excluded from the great-power politics surrounding the Korean Peninsula, and that, while Russo-Japanese relations are improving, they remain bedeviled by Russia's domestic problems. ussia and Northeast Asia assesses the reasons for Russia's policy towards Northeast Asia and offers key policy recommendations.

Chikahito Harada is currently Counsellor at the Japanese Embassy, London. He wrote this paper while a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1996-1997, on secondment from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was Director of the Russian Division. The views expressed in this paper are the author's own and should not be taken to represent those of the Japanese government.