The second Taiwan-Japan bilateral meeting on maritime cooperation yesterday concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on emergency and rescue operations at sea, while little progress was made on bridging the gap on the issue of the Okinotori atoll.
The MOU was signed by Taiwan-Japan Relations Association (TJRA) President Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and his Japanese counterpart, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi, at the two-day meeting’s closing ceremony at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday morning.
The agreement would allow Taipei and Tokyo to send help to vessels that have an accident in the other side’s surrounding sea areas, Coast Guard Administration Deputy Director Hu Yi-gang (胡意剛) said at a post-meeting news conference.
Photo: CNA
“If, for example, a Taiwanese fishing boat had an accident near the Japan-controlled Okinotori atoll and reports it to our fisheries agency, the agency would contact the Japan Coast Guard via a communication channel established by the MOU and it would immediately send help,” Hu said.
Rescuers would be sent by the Japanese side in the hypothetical scenario because the atoll is too far away from Taiwan, Hu said, adding that if a Japanese vessel broke down near Taiwanese territory, Taiwan would help.
Meanwhile, disagreement over the Okinotori atoll persists, but both sides have agreed to continue discussing the matter to maintain fishermen’s safety and conserve fisheries resources in the area, said TJRA Secretary-General Chang Shu-ling (張淑玲), who headed the Taiwanese delegation.
“Taiwan and Japan have their own stances on the atoll, which is why it is not easy to resolve the matter. Although both sides have demonstrated sincerity and goodwill in addressing the issue, a satisfactory result cannot be expected after only one or two rounds of talks,” Chang said, adding that the gap between opinions has narrowed.
However, she declined to reveal in what aspects Taipei and Tokyo are beginning to see eye-to-eye, saying that like every negotiation, no details should be disclosed before a consensus is made.
The first maritime cooperation meeting took place in Tokyo in October last year, after a dialogue mechanism was established amid growing tension between the two sides following the Japan Coast Guard’s seizure in April last year of a Taiwanese fishing boat operating about 150 nautical miles (277.8km) east-southeast of the Okinotori atoll.
Japan classifies Okinotori as an island and claims a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone around it, but there is no international consensus on whether Okinotori is an island or a rock.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has refused to take a legal stance on the classification until the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf delivers a ruling, but it urges Japan to respect the rights of Taiwan and other nations to fish and freely navigate the area.
The DPP administration’s stance is softer than that of the previous Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which officially declared Okinotori a rock.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor. The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference. Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation. A national security official said that former Mainland
RSS