The terms of the Yalta agreements of February 1945 made clear Stalin’s fundamental security objectives in the Far East.
By seeking to retain effective control over Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People ‘s Republic) , restore the rights and territories lost to Japan in 1904 and re-establish the extra- territorial right exercised by Tsarist Russia in Manchuria, Stalin aimed at enlarging the buffer zone on the Soviet periphery and gaining access to warm-water ports.