China, Japan boost maritime communication efforts
December 10, 2016, 9:03 am

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have meet several times in recent years, often on the sideline of global summits, but their territorial disputes over the East China Sea have strained ties [Xinhua]

The two countries, which met at a meeting of high-level maritime affairs in Haikou, southern China, also agreed to find ways to create a joint marine search-and-rescue mechanism in the bodies of water they share.

They will also meet soon to work on jointly combating sea pollution and curbing maritime drug smuggling.

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua “China and Japan also exchanged views on the East China Sea issue and agreed to hold the seventh round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs in Japan in the first half of next year.”

The two countries restarted high-level consultation on maritime affairs and cooperation in late 2014 following a drawback in ties over a number of disputes, some stemming from World War II.

Tensions between the two countries had resurfaced in 2013 and 2014, with each side accusing the other of flying military aircraft too close to its own jets in a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of islets in the East China Sea, known in China as Diaoyu and in Japan as Senkaku, which has left ties between the two nation severely strained.

Beijing and Tokyo have seen brief periods of deterioration in bilateral ties before and usually found a way to settle if not resolve differences.

The visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Yasukuni shrine, regarded by China as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism, has also infuriated both China and South Korea.

In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a meeting at the request of the Japanese side ahead of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing that year.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies