Japan, China have agreed to undertake high-level defence talks

• Japanese and Chinese officials will hold senior-level security discussions.
• Both officials met for about an hour on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
• The two officials discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

MUNICH: Japanese and Chinese officials will hold senior-level security discussions next week for the first time since February 2019, Tokyo’s top diplomat said Saturday.

According to his office, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Chinese colleague Wang Yi met for about an hour on the margins of the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.

According to the statement, the two officials discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is a significant topic of this year’s Munich summit, which is taking place just a few days before the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s assault.

Hayashi “urged China to respond to the situation in Ukraine as a responsible major power”.

He also condemned North Korea’s latest missile launch on Saturday, while calling on China “to make positive contributions to the international community under established international rules”.

The two officials agreed to meet next week for security and diplomatic talks, according to Hayashi’s office, without specifying where the meeting will take place.

The most recent summit was held in November 2019 in Beijing.

For years, Tokyo and Beijing have been at odds over the sovereignty of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that Japan administers as the Senkakus but the Chinese claim as the Diaoyus.

Relations between the two main Asian countries deteriorated in 2012 when Japan infuriated China by nationalizing several of the islands.

Serious concerns regarding the East China Sea

“Minister Hayashi again expressed serious concerns regarding the East China Sea including the situation surrounding the Senkaku Islands, as well as China’s increasingly active military activities near Japan including its coordination with Russia,” the Foreign Ministry statement said Saturday.

The upcoming security meeting would also be held in light of Japan’s recent accusations that it too had observed Chinese surveillance balloons over its territory in prior years after Washington shot down what it said was a spy balloon in early February.

Hayashi “clearly conveyed, once again, Japan’s position regarding the specific balloon-shaped flying objects that have been detected in Japan’s territorial airspace in the past,” the statement said.

“I said that if a balloon enters our country’s airspace without permission, it would be considered an intrusion no matter which country it came from,” Hayashi told reporters after the talks, Kyodo reported.

Previously, Japanese media stated that government authorities were considering loosening restrictions to allow the shooting down of aircraft objects that violated its airspace.

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