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Japan turns down China proposal on gas
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-08 20:42
Japan said Wednesday that it has rejected China's proposal to jointly develop
gas fields near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
China reportedly proposed joint exploration of separate gas deposits during
two days of talks in Beijing this week. But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary
Shinzo Abe said Tokyo would not go along with that idea.
"The proposal is not the one we can accept," Abe told reporters. "Although we
need to closely examine the content of China's proposal, I think it is
inconsistent with our previous position."
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso echoed Abe later Wednesday, saying Japan
had no intention to jointly develop gas fields near the islands — called Diaoyu
by China and Senkaku by Japan.
The islands — ceded to Japan by China in an 1895 war,
but returned to China after the end of World War II — lie in the East China
Sea.
Abe said that during the talks, which ended Tuesday,
China proposed to jointly explore gas deposits in two areas, but he declined to
give details saying that negotiations were continuing.
Japan gave an oil company drilling rights in the disputed area last year, but
drilling has not begun. Japan's largest daily Yomiuri Shimbun said in an
editorial Tuesday that Japan should go ahead with making preparations for
drilling.
Japan has put forth its own plan to jointly develop gas fields in the East
China Sea — but the proposal does not include the contentious islands, according
to media reports. The government has not disclosed details of the fields, but it
is believed to be along a median line Tokyo drew between the two countries,
according to reports.
Japanese Foreign Ministry Natural Resources and Energy Agency officials were
not immediately available for comment.
While China and Japan are linked by billions of dollars of trade, aid and
investment, relations have been strained in the past year because of clashes
over their wartime history.
China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, on Tuesday repeated Beijing's
objections over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war
shrine that honors Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals.
Koizumi rejected the demand that he stop visiting the Yasukuni shrine,
repeating to reporters in Tokyo his stance that the visits were "not a
diplomatic card."
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