The Japanese representatives, namely, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka, and the Ambassador, Lieutenant-General Yoshitsugu Tatekawa, and the Soviet representative, namely, the President of the People's Council and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Viacheslav Molotov, signed at Moscow at two o'clock this afternoon, April 13, the Pact of Neutrality between Japan and the Soviet Union.
A gist of the Pact is as follows :
The Japanese Empire and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics prompted by their desire of strengthening the peaceful and friendly relations subsisting between the two countries have decided to conclude a Pact of Neutrality and have mutually agreed as follows :
Article 1. The two High Contracting Parties agree to maintain peaceful and friendly relations between them and to respect each other's territorial integrity and inviolability.
Article 2. In case either one of the High Contracting Parties becomes an object of military action by one or more third Powers, the other Party shall observe neutrality throughout the entire period of such a conflict.
Article 3. The present Pact shall be enforced from the day of the completion of its ratifications by both High Contracting Parties, and it shall be valid for the period of five years. In case either one of the High Contracting Parties does not give notice of its abrogation a year before the expiration of the said period, the Pact shall be regarded as having automatically been prolonged for the next five years.
Article 4. The present Pact shall be ratified as soon as possible. An exchange of ratifications shall take place in Tokyo as soon as possible.
Simultaneously with the signature of the Pact the Governments of Japan and the Soviet Union issued a Joint Declaration to the following effect :
The Government of the Japanese Empire and the Government
of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in order to assure the peaceful and friendly relations subsisting between them on the basis of the spirit of the Neutrality Pact concluded between the two countries, respect, on the part of the Japanese Empire the territorial integrity and inviolability of the People's Republic of Mongolia, and on the part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the territorial integrity and inviolability of the Empire of Manchoukuo.
[Page 484 was transcribed with GPT (Codex CLI), not Claude.]