Japan calls for high-level talks with China to ease diplomatic row+

TOKYO, Sept. 22 Kyodo -
Japan expressed on Wednesday its hope of organizing high-level talks with China
at an early date to ease rising tensions between the two Asian powers stemming
from a ship collision earlier this month near a chain of disputed islets.
''If possible, it would be better to have high-level talks as soon as we can,''
Yoshito Sengoku, the top Japanese government spokesman, said at a news
conference.
Sengoku said the high-level meetings he had in mind included one between Prime
Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in New York this week on the
sidelines of U.N. gatherings.
Later in the day in Beijing, however, China effectively rejected such a call
from the Japanese government.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu simply reiterated China's demand
that Japan release the skipper of a Chinese fishing vessel involved in the
collision ''without any conditions.''
Japanese officials said earlier that there are no plans for Kan to meet with
Wen in New York.
''I am not specifically thinking of a new plan,'' Kan also told reporters ahead
of his departure Wednesday on a four-day trip to the United States, when asked
about the possibility of holding talks with Wen.
At the news conference, Sengoku repeated that Japan should deal with the Sept.
7 collision, which led to the arrest of the captain of a Chinese trawler, in
accordance with Japanese law, in a calm manner.
But he said at the same time it is important for Japan to ''take a broad view''
and that it may be necessary to make some political decisions to avoid harming
its important ties with China.
The remarks come after Wen on Tuesday urged Japan to ''immediately and
unconditionally'' release the detained captain.
At a meeting in New York with some Chinese nationals, Wen said Beijing will
''take further actions'' if Japan, which ''bears full responsibility for the
current situation,'' does not release the captain, according to China's
state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Japanese investigative authorities suspect the captain intentionally had his
ship collide with a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands in the
East China Sea, administrated by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
The coast guard says it has video footage that shows the trawler deliberately
ramming the patrol ship off the islands, known in China as the Diaoyu and in
Taiwan as the Tiaoyutai.
Japanese authorities have said the release of the footage will be withheld at
least until they conclude their investigations.
==Kyodo
2010-09-22 22:39:53


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