Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Senior Japanese and Chinese diplomats met in Shanghai to discuss the disputed East China Sea Islands. Known as Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese, the chain of islets have seen the dispute escalate from diplomatic row to military provocation with the two nations on the brink of breaking bilateral relations.
The Japanese government confirmed the meeting, underscoring its willingness to talk despite a sharp deterioration in ties. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said that Japanese Vice-Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai secretly met Zhang Zhijun last week to discuss the issue.
The meeting "was part of the communications going on between Japan and China in various forms and at various levels," Fujimura told reporters. "It just shows we are in constant contact at many levels."
After anti-Japanese violence broke out in China without government cracking down, ostensibly to distract the country from the upcoming Communist Party congress, various Japanese manufacturers shut down their Chinese plants.
For Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the two countries must settle the matter as soon as possible because the world economy cannot afford a freeze in Asian trade.
It is unclear what the islands' worth is. For some, their importance is strategic because they are located in the middle of various maritime routes. For others, they have important fishing grounds and vast natural gas potential.
In 2008, the two countries had reached a deal on jointly developing the islands, but it was never implemented.
For the past two weeks, the Navies of the two nations have dispatched ships to the area to patrol it.