Taiwan to uphold rights to fish on high seas: president
ROC Central News Agency
2016/04/28 14:25:59
Taipei, April 28 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reaffirmed Thursday that Taiwan will uphold the freedom of its fishermen operating on the high seas and will not budge on this position.
"We are opposed to Japan's expansion of power and the violation of the law" in the detention of a Taiwanese fishing boat Monday in a disputed area of the Pacific, the president said.
Ma said that the government will protect the freedom to fish on the high seas and that he has asked the Coast Guard Administration to send vessels to protect Taiwan's fishing boats, saying that "this is our fundamental right and we will not budge."
According to the president, the Okinotori atoll, located in the Western Pacific, was originally less than 3 pings (9.9 square meters) in area, "but has been expanded to hundreds of square meters through artificial construction."
Japan's claims to have rights over a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone is "in violation of international law and the definition of an island under Article 121 of the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea."
He said that Okinotori is a reef, a rock and not an island, and that it "is small and cannot sustain human habitation."
But Japan describes Okinotori as an island, and "seized our fishing ship (within the 200 nautical mile economic exclusive zone), which is a serious violation of freedom to fish on the high seas as stipulated in Article 87 of the convention," Ma noted.
"Fishing (on the high seas) is a very important right," he said, adding that Japan can build artificial islands or facilities at sea, but no matter how much it builds, they will not turn into Japanese territory.
Japan cannot claim territorial rights, and the only thing it can claim is at most a 500-meter "security zone."
But Japan has claimed a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone and seized the fishing boat, only releasing it after a payment of 6 million Japanese yen (US$54,442) was made.
"We feel that this is very unreasonable," Ma said.
But the president also stressed that the government is willing to solve the dispute in a peaceful way, and has also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make representations to Japan.
In Japan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida said Thursday in a routine news conference that Japan does not accept Taiwan's stance that Okinotori is not an island, and has lodged a protest through the Interchange Association, which is the de facto Japanese embassy in Taiwan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties.
Kishida said that Okinotori is an island as established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and has the right to an exclusive economic zone.
Asahi Shinbum and Mainichi Shinbum -- two major Japanese newspapers -- reported Thursday that Japan had lodged a protest against Taiwan through the Interchange Association a day earlier.
Asahi Shinbum said Ma convened a national security meeting over the matter and instructed that all offical documents should not refer to Okinotori as an island, but a reef.
The "Tung Sheng Chi No. 16," which is registered in Pingtung County, was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard early Monday in waters 150 nautical miles east-southeast of Okinotori, an atoll in the Pacific that belongs to Japan.
The boat and its crew were released Tuesday after the owner paid a security deposit of NT$1.76 million (US$54,442) to the Japanese authorities.
(By Lee Shu-hua, Yang Ming-chu and Lilian Wu)
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