Ministers make first call on hotline
Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada held a 20-minute call with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu
Japan and China used a new military hotline for the first time on Tuesday, their defence ministries said, following years of negotiations to set up the communication channel.
Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada held a 20-minute call with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, Tokyo’s ministry said in a statement.
“Hamada mentioned the existence of security concerns between Japan and China, such as the situation in the East China Sea,” it said.
He “stated that it is necessary to have candid communication, especially when there are concerns about Japan-china relations”.
Beijing confirmed the call, saying the air and maritime hotline would “contribute to further maintaining regional peace and stability”.
The hotline, launched on March 31, had been mooted by both sides for over a decade as a way to avert unexpected clashes in the East China Sea.
As the world’s second- and third-largest economies, China and Japan are key trading partners, and in 2022 marked 50 years of diplomatic relations.
But ties between them are often fraught, and soured in December when Japan announced a security overhaul including more defence spending, calling China its “greatest strategic challenge ever”.
Nonetheless, Japan’s Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida recently said he wants “constructive and stable” ties with China.
Kishida met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in 2022, and Japan’s foreign minister visited Beijing in April – the first such trip since December 2019. This week, Mr Kishida is hosting Group of Seven (G-7) leaders in Hiroshima, where the bloc’s relationship with China will be high on the agenda.
At a G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting in April, seen as setting the stage for the summit, the group warned Beijing over “militarisation activities” in the South China Sea (called the East Sea by V.iệt Nam).