The Japanese foreign minister said yesterday it was “unfortunate” Australia had threatened legal action against Tokyo’s controversial whaling program, but he did not believe it would hurt ties.
“It’s very unfortunate the Australian side has indicated it will take action in an international court,” Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters.
“Should action become a reality, Japan will seek to represent its case with the IWC [International Whaling Commission] that its activities are legal,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
He said the issue should not affect relations between the two countries.
Okada met with his Australian counterpart, Stephen Smith, yesterday for diplomatic talks that were overshadowed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s threat to take Japan to court over its Southern Ocean whaling.
Smith said Australia remained hopeful of a diplomatic solution, but reiterated Rudd’s vow to seek arbitration in the International Court of Justice if negotiations failed.
He said Australia would push a proposal at the IWC for whaling to be phased out in the Great Southern Ocean over a “reasonable period of time.”
“And that is a position that we will put to the International Whaling Commission in the very near future, potentially as early as tomorrow [today],” Smith said.
Rudd on Friday bluntly warned Tokyo, a major trading partner and top export market, it had until November to reduce its whale catch to zero, or face action in the International Court of Justice.
Australia, along with New Zealand, has consistently opposed Japan’s killing of hundreds of whales each year, which it carries out via a loophole in an international moratorium that allows “lethal research.”
Okada is the first official from the new Japanese administration to visit Australia and emphasized before leaving Tokyo that their whaling activities were legal, carried out in public waters and in accordance with international conventions.
He and Rudd had a “frank discussion on whaling” in Sydney on Saturday and a spokesman said Japan still hoped for a diplomatic agreement on the issue.
For the past six years Japanese harpooners have been pursued by militant environmental activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and this year clashes between them have been particularly fierce.
Okada and Smith jointly condemned the violence, which has seen a Sea Shepherd powerboat sunk and resulted in the detention of one of their activists.
A group of about 10 protesters from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society earlier confronted the pair as they laid remembrance wreaths in Perth’s war cemetery in a silent protest against the annual whale hunt.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese