tirsdag 28. desember 2021

Japan and China agree to set up defense hotline amid territorial tensions

The defense ministers of Japan and China on Monday agreed to set up a joint communication hotline by the end of 2022, a news release from Japan's Defense Ministry said, amid tensions between the East Asian neighbors. China's Defense Ministry confirmed the hotline agreement in a statement without giving a date for its implementation.

The agreement -- reached during a two-hour video conference between Japan's Nobuo Kishi and China's Wei Fenghe -- comes with their countries in dispute over Taiwan and issues in the East and South China seas. The ministers discussed those differences during the meeting, including their competing claims to an uninhabited rocky island chain in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but which China claims as its sovereign territory.