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TOKYO: Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono said on Saturday (August 29) that he had agreed with his US counterpart, Mark Esper, that both countries were opposed to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in key waterways. of the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
Kono shared his point of view with the US Secretary of Defense at a time when the US and China are at odds on issues ranging from technology and human rights to Chinese military activities in the disputed South China Sea.
A thorny issue in China’s ties with Japan is Beijing’s claim on a group of small islets in the East China Sea controlled by Tokyo.
“We agreed that the international community will respond firmly to any unilateral change to the status quo in the South China Sea and the East China Sea,” Kono said.
He was speaking online from Guam to reporters in the Japanese capital after his meeting with Esper.
Kono said Esper had confirmed that the security treaty between the United States and Japan covered the islets of the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.
As for Japan’s domestic politics, Kono said he would think hard about standing in the ruling party’s elections to choose the successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who abruptly announced his resignation for health reasons on Friday.
The United States has long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea and has regularly dispatched warships through the strategic waterway.
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China claims 90 percent of potentially energy-rich waters, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also claim parts of it.
Approximately 3 trillion US dollars in trade pass through the waterway each year. China has built bases on atolls in the region, but says its intentions are peaceful.
