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MOFA to hold talks with Japan

Taiwan and Japan are expected to hold talks in about half a month to address their recent fishery disputes in the overlapping water of the two countries' exclusive economic zones, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.

Gary Lin (林松煥), director-general of MOFA's East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that Japan has responded to the ministry's request to conduct bilateral negotiations to settle the dispute as soon as possible by agreeing to hold the talks late this month or early next month.

According to Lin, MOFA has set the fishery negotiations as the top issue in its dealings with Japan, and the Executive Yuan will call an inter-ministerial meeting later the same day to discuss the issue.

The People First Party (PFP) held a seminar in the morning at the Legislative Yuan, with fishermen and officials from MOFA and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) taking part.

Sha Chih-i, deputy director of the Fisheries Administration under the Council of Agriculture, said that Taiwan will emulate the China-Japan and Japan-South Korea models to conduct the negotiations with Japan.

To meet the precondition not to affect future demarcation of each other's economic zones, Taiwan will discuss with Japan on first drawing up a joint operations area in the disputed water where fishing boats from the two countries are allowed to catch fish under adequate management.

Nearly 50 fishing boats from Suao, in the eastern Taiwan county of Ilan, staged a protest last Friday in water 160km off Taiwan's northeastern coast against Japanese patrol vessels that had expelled Taiwan fishing ships out of an area in which the 370km exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and Japan overlap.

Chen Chih-pin (陳志彬), a PFP caucus whip at the Legislative Yuan, accused the MND of negligence for having not dispatched vessels to protect the Taiwan fishermen and for trying to pass the buck to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA).

Chen opined that the Ministry of the Interior and the Fisheries Administration should allocate funds in national compensation to those Taiwan fishing boats that were dispersed or detained by Japan due to the government's inability to protect its nationals.

An MND official defended the ministry's stance by clarifying that the CGA is the government agency that is designated to deal with such incidents and that the MND will offer assistance when the CGA needs help.

Fishermen attending the seminar were angry with the government's poor handling of the issue, claiming that if the government fails to do them justice within 15 days, they will converge fishing boats from across Taiwan to encircle Japanese patrol vessels and stage a protest before the Interchange Association in Taipei -- Japan's representative office in Taiwan.
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