Wrapping up an informal summit with hugs and kisses Sunday, the leaders of Russia and Japan proclaimed a new friendship and pledged to work toward a formal peace treaty by 2000.
"We became friends," said Russian President Boris Yeltsin, towering over Japan's Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. "We'll address each other by name - Boris and Ryu."The "no necktie" summit was part of a Russian effort to improve relations with Asian giants Japan and China after decades of fric-tion.
Russia believes strong ties to Asia during the next century will help balance the power and influence of the United States.
Yeltsin will continue his Asian offensive next weekend when he travels to China for a three-day summit.
Hashimoto said he and Yeltsin agreed to work toward a peace treaty between Russia and Japan by the year 2000. The countries never signed a peace pact after World War II because of a territorial dispute involving the Kuril Islands.
Russia seized four islands in the Kuril chain from Japan at the end of the war and Japan has been demanding their return ever since. So far, neither side has shown any sign of compromising on the issue.
"We had very serious discussions about a very complex problem, the issue of a peace treaty," Hashimoto told reporters at the government retreat of Sosna just outside Krasnoyarsk, a Siberian city of 1 million people midway between Moscow and Tokyo.
"As a result, we agreed to put maximum efforts into concluding a peace treaty by 2000," he said.
The Russian leader acknowledged that compromises on the issue were likely to be met by criticism in both Russia and Japan.
The two men agreed to complete an accord on fishing near the islands by year's end, but there was no indication of any further breakthrough.
Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, who is overseeing ties with Japan, made it clear that Moscow will not surrender the islands.