Relations with Japan remained of a different order. There was a residual sense of guilt in Japan about its conduce in the war in China, especially as many regarded China as an important source in the development of Japanese culture and there were elements within Japan that did not wish to be cut off from China. Additionally, certain business interests sought economic relations. The PRC was interested not only in weakening the American trade embargo, but also in developing wider relations with Japan in the hope of weakening its ties with Taiwan and the United States. In 1962 the semi-official Memorandum Trade Agreement was signed in Beijing. In 1964 Mao, in an interview with Japanese journalists, caused considerable anger in Moscow as he declared that the southern Kuriles along with many other territories had been unjustly acquired by the Soviet Union. This was at a point when Mao had developed a view that the smaller and medium capitalist countries belonged to a special intermediate zone between the two superpowers, implying that they should find common cause with China. France, under the presidency of De Gaulle, recognized the PRC in 1964. But Mao was unable to make a similar breakthrough with Japan, and in the end little came of his initiative.