Report from the Visit in Moscow on May 14-19, 1984, at the Academic Conference on 'The Problems of Security and Peace in the Far East'

Warsaw, May 28, 1984

Report from the visit in Moscow on May 14-19, 1984, at the academic conference on “The Problems of Security and Peace in the Far East” as well as the session of the Commission for the Current Far Eastern Affairs

The conference, with the participation of the representatives of Sinological centers and representatives of the foreign ministries of nine countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Mongolia, Poland, Cuba, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union) was devoted to the exchange of views on the new aspects of peace and security in the Far East, following [US President Ronald] Reagan's visit and the cancellation of [Deputy Prime Minister Ivan] Arkhipov's visit to China. Thirty-six papers, presented at the conference, emphasized that the military pressures on the socialist countries in the Far East are now much greater than in Europe, which also experienced intensified tensions. Although Beijing preaches the need to defend peace, in reality, it remains in agreement with the West. The processes taking place in China threaten China's inclusion into a military and political structure of the West, as well as into the system of the world capitalist economy. The Sino-American relations, Sino-Japanese relations, and the PRC's relations with the NATO countries attest to this. Therefore, the main task of our Sinologists is to deepen their research on China's domestic and foreign policies, as well as to work out realistic assessments on the nature and prospects of Beijing's moves, including the issues of war and peace.

[…]

The Commission adopted the Soviet proposition to create a working group entitled “China: the position on the questions of war and peace” (the head of the group is A. Yakovlev (USSR)). In addition, the Commission adopted the Soviet proposition to hold an academic conference in the second quarter of 1985 in Moscow, as well as the East German proposition to hold a conference in the GDR in the fourth quarter of 1985 entitled “The fundamental problems of the PRC's socialist development in the 1980s.”…

At the end of the conference, the heads of delegations were received in the former office of Y. Andropov by Oleg Rakhmanin who, according to old custom, shared with us his views. [Note: this report does not include Rakhmanin's remarks, MG].

R. Slawinski
M. Stefanska-Matuszyn