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Next Taiwan-Japan meeting on fishing rights to be held soon: minister

ROC Central News Agency

2013/03/04 19:58:41

Taipei, March 4 (CNA) The next preparatory meeting heralding a new round of bilateral fishery talks between Taiwan and Japan will be held soon, Foreign Minister David Lin said, adding that the meeting could take place in Tokyo.

The meeting will be held soon, but the exact date and place of the meeting has yet to be finalized, Lin said in response to questions on the issue.

"We're still in negotiations with Japan," he said on the sidelines of an event hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present citations to local non-government organizations in recognition of their work.

Lin's remarks came after a recent Japanese report that said Taiwan and Japan could hold the preparatory meeting this week.

The report also said that the United States had asked the Taiwanese government not to allow its government boats to approach the waters between the disputed Diaoyutai Islands and Japan.

Lin, however, denied the report. Protecting Taiwanese fishermen is considered an important task by the government, he added.

The U.S. also hopes that the fishery talks between Taiwan and Japan will take place without a hitch and that both sides will be able to deal with the dispute with goodwill, Lin said.

Asked about the territorial dispute over the Diaoyutais that involves Taiwan, Japan and China, Lin reiterated that the government will not cooperate with China on the issue.

"We will safeguard our sovereignty and also protect our fishing rights," he said.

The Diaoyutais, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyutai Islands in China, are located about 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan. They have been under Japanese control since 1972, but Taiwan and China have also staked a claim on them.

Taiwan and Japan have held 16 formal rounds of talks to discuss fishing rights in their overlapping territories since 1996, the most recent one having been held in 2009.

But no new talks have been held since then, due to differences on how to resolve the cross-border fishery disputes.

Taiwanese fishermen consider the waters near the Diaoyutais their traditional fishing ground, but are routinely chased away from the area by Japanese authorities when they venture too close to what Japan considers as its territorial waters.

(By Elaine Hou)