Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) hailed efforts by Japan’s visiting foreign minister to improve relations between the countries yesterday, after tension ramped up over the ownership of a disputed chain of islands in the East China Sea.
A diplomatic spat over the islands, which China calls Diaoyutai but are known as Senkaku in Japan, flared last week; China lodged a complaint on Thursday after the Japanese prime minister reasserted that the uninhabited islets belong to Tokyo. The islands are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and his Chinese counterpart agreed on Saturday that their conflicting claims should not undermine their overall relationship, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said.
Wen told Nakasone yesterday that he appreciated the efforts he had made to improve bilateral ties, Xinhua said. It did not elaborate.
The two agreed to arrange a first official visit to China for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who took office in September, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.
The two sides also agreed to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear ambitions, Kyodo said.
The two foreign ministers also had discussed North Korea in their talks on Saturday and agreed that all parties should continue their efforts toward denuclearization, Kodama said.
They also agreed Japan and China — which have the world’s second and third-largest economies — should lead regional initiatives to battle the financial crisis and stimulate trade, Kodama said.
The foreign ministers discussed an agreement struck last summer to jointly develop oil and gas reserves in the East China Sea, Kodama said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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