UN General Assembly
1955

145. The Soviet Union, for its part, maintained until recently only two military bases outside its own frontiers. One of these bases was situated in the Far East, at Port Arthur, and was jointly administered by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. At the end of last year, on the initiative of the Soviet Union, agreement was reached between the USSR and, the People’s Republic of China on the transfer of this jointly held military base to the People’s Republic of China alone. This agreement was put into effect in the spring of 1955. At the present time the Soviet Union has not a single military base in the Far East outside its own territory. The Soviet Union’s second military base was on Finnish territory, in the Porkkala-Udd region. It had been established in accordance with the peace treaty which came into force in 1947 for a period of 50 years. Under an agreement just concluded between the Soviet Union and Finland, in which the initiative again came from the USSR, this Soviet military base too will be liquidated in the very near future. By 1 January 1956, all Soviet military units will have been withdrawn from the Porkkala-Udd area, and the area will return to the full disposal of Finland.