Japan, China Agree to Work for Early Start of Maritime Liaison Mechanism

Tokyo, May 18 (Jiji Press)-- Senior defense officials of Japan and China agreed Monday to accelerate their efforts to launch a bilateral maritime liaison mechanism at an early date to avoid unexpected incidents between the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and Chinese forces in the East China Sea and elsewhere. The agreement came at bureau chief-level talks in Tokyo, which Tetsuro Kuroe, director-general of the Defense Ministry's Defense Policy Bureau, attended as a Japanese representative. The two countries last had a bureau chief-level meeting of defense officials in April 2013. The talks about the maritime liaison mechanism began in 2008 between division chief-level defense officials from the two countries. The dialogue was suspended after Japan's nationalization of some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in 2012 but was resumed in January this year. China claims the Japan-administered islands as its own. Japan is aiming to start the liaison mechanism in the first half of this year. At the day's meeting, Japan explained about the newly revised Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines and Japan's national security bills that pave the way for the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense. China stressed that those steps should be designed to ensure regional peace and stability. Beijing also pointed out that it is consistently seeking peace, apparently in reference to growing international criticism over its land reclamation in the South China Sea. END