Japan seeks US support for Tokyo-Beijing ‘safety’ hotline
22 Feb 2013 5:35 AM IST
Japan has sought US support for setting up a hot line ‘as soon as possible’ between Tokyo and Beijing to avert an inadvertent clash between Japan’s Self- Defence Forces and the Chinese military.
In a meeting with US Secretary of Navy Ray Mabus, Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera asked the United States to lobby China to set up a Japan-China maritime safety mechanism, Japanese officials said.
Japan has intensified its effort to create such a mechanism after a Chinese frigate directed weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer last month near a group of islets in the East China Sea at the heart of a bitter bilateral dispute, Kyodo news agency reported.
In a meeting with US Secretary of Navy Ray Mabus, Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera asked the United States to lobby China to set up a Japan-China maritime safety mechanism, Japanese officials said.
Japan has intensified its effort to create such a mechanism after a Chinese frigate directed weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer last month near a group of islets in the East China Sea at the heart of a bitter bilateral dispute, Kyodo news agency reported.
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