Defense Minister Tomomi Inada met with her US counterpart Ashton Carter in Washington to discuss security issues. Chinese and Russian fleets conducted joint operation exercise off Guangdong Province in the South China Sea during the “Joint Sea 2016” drill on Friday. She spoke ahead of her first meeting with Pentagon chief Ash Carter on Thursday in Washington.
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Beijing has been accused of trying to change the rules by its massive land reclamation projects of several reefs and atolls and by its claims to the entire sea, which were ruled unfounded in July by an worldwide tribunal – whose authority China refuses to accept.
Inada also said that Chinese incursions in waters surrounding the Senkakus have become “routinized” in recent years, citing an “unprecedented” incident in which Chinese law enforcement ships and fishing boats sailed into Japanese territorial waters surrounding the islands and made multiple incursions over a period of several days.
Japan hopes to encourage China to act as an agent of stability.
Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea where its territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Ties between Asia’s two largest economies have always been overshadowed by arguments over their painful wartime history and a territorial spat in the East China Sea, among other issues.
Japan’s involvement in the South China Sea has drawn China’s attention.
The Japanese-administered islands, located about 400 kilometers west of Okinawa’s main island, are claimed by China and Taiwan, which call them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively.
“That is where its true and major objective lies”, he writes. The door for communication is still open, Inada concluded her presentation saying.
Lingnan University’s Zhang cast doubt on Beijing’s claims that the disputes are linked, saying that Tokyo is mainly anxious the strategic waters – home to key shipping lanes through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year – could be dominated by China.
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They also exchanged views on the principle of consensus on East China Sea issues and agreed in principle to hold the six round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs in China within the year. Beijing has rejected the legitimacy of the ruling and established a de facto no-fly zone over a large portion of the sea in response. “So its announced intention of sending its navy to the South China Sea has its own strategic logic that is not related to China’s activities in the East China Sea”.
