Japan and South Korea yesterday held their first high-level strategic dialogue since both countries elected new leaders, as they look to repair frayed ties.
Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Chikao Kawai and South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Ahn Ho-young were to huddle in Tokyo for the 12th meeting of its kind since the two nations launched the framework in 2005.
The afternoon meeting was the first one under the governments of newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye, as they attempt to improve relations soured by a territorial dispute.
The two diplomats were expected to discuss issues such as ways to deal with North Korea in the wake of a rocket launch widely believed to be missile test.
Ties between the two US allies deteriorated last year after outgoing South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made the first visit to tiny disputed islands known as Dokdo in Seoul and Takeshima in Tokyo.
The visit sent ties into a tailspin and reawakened historical animosities related to Japan’s 1910 to 1945 colonial rule and over South Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.
Abe, who took office in late December, and Park, who is set to take office next month, appear to be trying to reset relations, having already sent an envoy from to Seoul.
Meanwhile, the top Philippine diplomat yesterday said that “very threatening” territorial claims made by China risked Asian stability.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario made the comments following a meeting in Manila with Japanese Secretary of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, during which the two sides pledged to deepen security and other ties to counter a rising China.
The Philippines and Japan are locked in separate territorial disputes with China which have simmered for decades, but intensified recently amid what the two nations see as a more aggressive China.
“I think we all understand that the assertions being made by China, in terms of their nine-dash line claim for example, they do pose threats to the stability of the region,” Del Rosario told reporters.
The so-called “nine-dash” line map lays out China’s claims to most of the South China.
Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, but China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of it.
Del Rosario cited a range of recent China tactics that were of concern to the Philippines, including establishing a local governing authority to rule over the South China Sea and building in contested areas.
Without mentioning China directly, Kishida said it was necessary to “enhance the strategic partnership between the two countries and cooperate in shaping [a] peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific region.”
Manila expects to acquire 10 new patrol craft from Japan, which will also help train the under-equipped Philippine Coast Guard and fund a communications upgrade, Del Rosario said.
Del Rosario said that Philippine President Benigno Aquino III shared his view that Asia needed a militarily stronger Japan to balance China.
Separately, Japan scrambled fighter jets yesterday to head off a number of Chinese military planes near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan, Japanese media said. The planes were spotted on military radar inside Japan’s so-called air defense identification zone, the Fuji TV network reported.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion