China, Japan hold high-level maritime consultations

China and Japan on Tuesday held the 14th round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs via video link, where the two sides recognized 10 years of the mechanism’s role in enhancing mutual understanding, safeguarding marine security and promoting pragmatic cooperation.

According to the official release of the event by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two sides agreed to strive to manage differences, expand pragmatic maritime cooperation and exchanges, and contribute to the realization of long-term peace and stability in the East China Sea.

China and Japan reached consensus on specific cooperation, including to speed up the construction of the direct telephone line connection under the maritime and air liaison mechanism of both countries’ defense sectors, carrying out exchanges between maritime law enforcement officers and jointly combatting crossborder maritime crimes and illegal fishing.

During Tuesday’s consultations, China reiterated its stance on the East China Sea, Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea, urging Japan to respect China’s sovereignty and security concerns and refrain from actions that complicate the situations, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

China expressed its strong dissatisfaction with Japan’s recent negative remarks and erroneous practices on the Taiwan question. China emphasized that the Taiwan question involves the political foundation and basic trust of China-Japan relations, and required the Japanese side to keep its promises and handle it properly. China also expressed concerns over Japan’s dumping of nuclear-contaminated water.

With the meeting of leaders of the two countries on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Bangkok, Thailand laying a foundation, hopefully the maritime consultations can provide new opportunities for the stable and healthy development of China-Japan relations, observers noted.

Zhou Yongsheng, deputy director of the Japanese Studies Center at the China Foreign Affairs University, said on Tuesday that China and Japan have room to enhance cooperation in marine economy and environmental protection and energy.