Russia and Japan Move to Strengthen Energy Ties

After decades of weak ties because of a dispute over four Pacific islands, officials from Japan and Russia have launched high-level talks on such strategic issues as trade and energy.

For Japan in particular, building a bridge to energy-laden Russia seems to be an emerging priority. For Russia, improved ties with Japan open up a new market for Russian energy and goods.

Japan’s immediate interest is developing a relationship with Russia to diversify its over-reliance on the Middle East, which presently supplies 90 percent of Japan’s oil imports. It is estimated that Japan could potentially receive up to 15 percent of its petroleum from the East Siberian oil fields.
There is also the issue of Japan’s interest in the Russian-Chinese Pacific pipeline, which is still under discussion. Japan has taken issue with Russian and Chinese plans to build a Pacific pipeline, which, in its first stage, despite assurances from Russia, appeared to circumnavigate Japanese interests and cater only to the Chinese. The 2,400-kilometer Russia-China oil pipeline is to extend from Russia’s Angarsk to Daqing in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. However, Japan has lobbied hard for the second stage of the pipeline to include Japanese interests, such as running the pipeline to the Sea of Japan.

Though China will not be pleased to see Japan muscle into an energy relationship with Russia, Beijing is also not in a position to dictate terms to Russia because of its own heavy reliance on Russian energy. Despite this small quandary for China, the important trend here is that Russia appears to be emerging as a real partner to both Asian countries.

The Trumpet