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had told Yeltsin that solving the problem was in Russia's
interest. Yeltsin had said that overt
ow n
pressure would
not help. Mr Miy az awa would see Mr Mulroney on 5 July to
Miyazawa discuss it further; Canada had been very sympathetic.
He
had also discussed it recently with Kohl and Mitterrand who had shown understanding. Both had particular
interests in relation to Russia and were likely to be less enthusiastic. The UK's support would therefore be
particularly helpful. The Prime Minister said that he was ready to have a quiet word with Mr Mulroney himself. We would do what we could to help. He agreed that France
and Germany were likely to be the most difficult.
Mr Miyazawa emphasised that once agreement in principle had been reached on return of the islands, implementation would be very flexible. There was no question of
expelling the Russian inhabitants. Indeed Japan was now encouraging exchange visits to educate the inhabitants on how much better off materially they would be once sovereignty had been restored to Japan. He emphasised again the very careful and constructive approach which the Japanese would adopt. The Prime Minister said that this was very helpful. He would raise the matter with Yeltsin again.
BILATERAL RELATIONS
The Prime Minister said that relations were in better
shape than for very many years.
This was a matter of
great satisfaction and we would continue to build on it. The Japan Festival, Opportunity and Priority Japan were
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