FOCUS: Kan`s meet with Wen good move, territorial row likely to stay

BRUSSELS, Oct. 5 Kyodo -
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's trip to Brussels appears to have paid off
after he got the chance to meet his Chinese counterpart and ease strains over
maritime collisions near the disputed Senkaku Islands, but fundamental
settlement of the row still seems a long way off.
Kan had once been inclined to cancel his trip to the Asia-Europe Meeting in the
Belgian capital, citing a tight Diet schedule. But the premier reversed his
decision later, apparently with the aim of seeking international support for
Tokyo's position at the international parley.
When Kan announced he would fly to Belgium to attend the rather low-key summit,
speculation arose that, with China having recently softened its rhetoric
against Japan, he was aiming to have informal talks with Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao to find a way of healing bilateral ties.
Still, as there was no official meeting scheduled between the two leaders on
the sidelines of the two-day summit, and as Kan had decided not to join the
second-day sessions, his announcement that he had indeed met with Wen came as a
surprise.
In the 25-minute talks that took place in a corridor outside the conference
venue, the two leaders agreed on the need to mend their soured relationship and
that private and government exchanges should be resumed.
The positive tone of the meeting is a major step toward fixing the bilateral
relationship and could lead to more frequent contact between leaders of the two
countries, including a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Japan when it
hosts the summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Yokohama on Nov. 13-14.
Japan's top government spokesman hailed the Kan-Wen meeting, saying it is good
for the world economy.
Other countries such as the United States also welcomed the development as
Washington views tensions between the two economic giants as undesirable.
But with Kan and Wen both stressing their respective countries' claims to the
disputed isles in the East China Sea, where ample natural resources are
believed to be located, in the late-Monday meeting, the two Asian economies are
far from resolving the territorial dispute.
Dean Cheng, research fellow in Chinese Political and Security Affairs in the
Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, noted Beijing's recent
aggressive diplomacy in territorial disputes with its neighbors and the
country's military modernization.
In a recent report, Cheng noted, ''For both China and Japan, control over the
islands is a reflection, in part, of their competition over natural
resources.''
The Japanese-administered islands are claimed by China and Taiwan and known as
the Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively.
Japanese prosecutors' decision late September to release the detained skipper
of a Chinese fishing boat over the collisions near the islets drew criticism at
home, with some people saying Japan had succumbed to Chinese pressure.
Tokyo arrested the Chinese captain for allegedly intentionally ramming a
Japanese coast guard ship, prompting China to take a number of retaliatory
steps including freezing ministerial-level exchanges with Japan and restricting
Chinese exports of rare earths to Japan.
==Kyodo