China and Japan’s defence ministers hold first talks over new military hotline
- 20-minute call comes as tensions rise over East China Sea disputes, Tokyo’s links with US-led West on issues like Taiwan and Beijing’s Moscow ties
- Hotline set up under liaison mechanism will help both sides ‘to manage and control maritime and air crises’, Chinese defence ministry statement says
The phone call between China’s Li Shangfu and his Japanese counterpart Yasukazu Hamada comes as bilateral tensions continue to rise over issues including territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
The pair “exchanged views on the two countries and their defence relations”, a statement from the Chinese defence ministry said.
The hotline, set up in March under a defence liaison mechanism, will “effectively enrich” bilateral communication, “strengthen the capabilities of both sides to manage and control maritime and air crises, and help to further maintain regional peace and stability”, according to the statement.
The call between Li and Hamada lasted for about 20 minutes, the Japanese defence ministry said in its own statement.
Hamada “mentioned the existence of security concerns between Japan and China, such as the situation in the East China Sea” and highlighted the need for “candid communication, especially when there are concerns about Japan-China relations”, the statement from Tokyo said.
Both sides confirmed that the liaison mechanism would play “an important role in fostering trust between Japanese and Chinese defence authorities as well as avoiding contingencies”, and that the hotline would be operated “appropriately and reliably”, it added.
Relations between Beijing and Tokyo have long been tested by territorial disputes in the East China Sea and Japan’s wartime past.
02:46
Putin meets China’s new defence chief in Moscow, hails military cooperation
Their long-standing dispute in the East China Sea relates to a group of Japanese-controlled uninhabited islets called the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Senkakus in Japan, with each side accusing the other of maritime incursions.
His remarks quickly drew a rebuke from Beijing, with its foreign ministry criticising the plan as “Nato’s continual eastward expansion in the Asia-Pacific, interference in regional affairs and an attempt to destroy regional peace and stability”.
Nato office in Japan risks further entangling ties with China: analysts
Japan has also been more vocal about its support for self-ruled Taiwan in recent years, and condemned large-scale live-fire Chinese military drills near the island last August as “a threat to regional security”.
For Beijing, Taiwan is breakaway territory that must be reunified, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as independent, but are opposed to any forcible change in the status quo.
Last week, during a meeting of European and Indo-Pacific foreign ministers in Sweden, Hayashi accused Beijing of “continuing and intensifying its unilateral attempts” to change the status quo in the East and South China seas by force and increasing its military activities around Taiwan, and also expressed concerns about Russian and Chinese military cooperation in Asia.
