Kishida Urges China to Respect Int'l Tribunal Ruling

Vientiane, July 25 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida urged China on Monday to abide by a recent international tribunal ruling that rejected its claims in the South China Sea over its territorial dispute with the Philippines. The July 12 ruling issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, is final and legally binds the parties concerned, Kishida said at a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Vientiane. All parties involved in the dispute should avoid taking actions that would heighten regional tensions, he added. However, Wang reiterated Beijing's intention of not accepting the ruling, saying Japan is not a country concerned to the South China Sea dispute. At a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Mongolia earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked Beijing to comply with the ruling. But Li rejected the request and called on Japan not to intervene in the dispute between China and the Philippines. At Monday's meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Kishida and Wang had heated discussions on the South China Sea issue. Wang said the Japanese government should be careful about its speech and behavior, according to Chinese officials. Japanese officials with access to the meeting declined to reveal details of Wang's remarks, saying only that the Chinese side made a conventional explanation. Kishida told reporters after the meeting that the talks were significant because the two sides made frank exchanges of views about bilateral relations in general though there were heated discussions as well. During his meeting with Wang, Kishida also said he wants China to seriously take Tokyo's strong concerns and sense of crisis over maritime and airspace issues around the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, calling for the early launch of a planned bilateral communication mechanism aimed at preventing accidental clashes between the two countries' ships or aircraft in or above the sea. In reply, Wang said that China hopes to put the mechanism into action. But they are believed to have been unable to reach a concrete agreement. The East China Sea islands are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu. The two ministers agreed to work together for the success of a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in Hangzhou, the capital of the eastern China province of Zhejiang, in September. Kishida called for cooperation to arrange a Japan-China summit on the fringe of the G-20 gathering and realize a proposed trilateral summit among the two nations plus South Korea in Japan within this year. Kishida and Wang also confirmed that Japan and China will join forces in tackling North Korea's nuclear and missile issues. The Kishida-Wang meeting took place on the sidelines of a series of gatherings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Laotian capital. END