LOOKING EAST:

Neither Russia’s economic crisis nor the resignation of Japan’s prime minister were allowed to interfere with the slowly developing Russo-Japanese rapprochement. Prime Minister Kirienko left the IMF negotiations in the hands of Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov and Central Bank President Sergei Dubinin while he traveled to Tokyo last week to nail down an autumn summit meeting in Moscow with whoever succeeds Ryutaro Hashimoto. The expectation is that a peace treaty providing for a settlement of the territorial dispute in the Kuril Islands will be signed by the year 2000. Japan’s contribution to the bail-out package, though apparently tied to Japanese exports, should help pave the way.