Japan said yesterday that China has started production of gas or oil in a disputed energy field in the East China Sea where Chinese warships were recently spotted, and it would consider countermeasures.
Japanese officials have spotted flames spouting out of a Chinese drilling facility just on China's side of what Japan says is a dividing line in the potentially lucrative field. China does not recognize the line.
"We are not sure whether it is oil or gas. But we have confirmed that they have finally started digging," Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told a news conference.
PHOTO: AFP
"The government is coordinating to consider ways to deal with this. The facility is located in the area of the dispute, although it is not clear whether the gasfield crosses the median line," he added.
Japan says that China, even if it digs from its side, could extract Japanese resources underground. It wants an agreement between the two countries before either starts extraction.
China and Japan, whose relations have worsened this year, have repeatedly protested to each other over the disputed field. But a series of high-level meetings has led to no agreement other than to continue dialogue.
In Beijing foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (
Qin told reporters that China's East China Sea drilling was within its rights.
"China's exploration in the gas field is being conducted in uncontested waters," he said.
However, Qin said, China was willing to conduct talks with Tokyo on the drilling question.
"The principle of the Chinese side is that we hope that the issue between China and Japan in the East China Sea can be handled by dialogue and negotiation," he said.
Nakagawa said he hoped Japan and China would resume dialogue on the issue. Qin said only that arranging the next round "requires further contact and consultations by the two sides."
Japan said Chinese warships were seen near the gasfield for the first time on Sept. 9, two days before Japan's general election. China said they were on a routine drill.
China began test-drilling unilaterally in the East China Sea in 2003. Japan accuses Beijing of reaching into Tokyo's exclusive economic zone, and in July the government for the first time granted a Japanese firm permission to explore the area.
A Japanese survey in 1999 estimated that the disputed field held a massive 200 billion cubic meters of gas.
The gas dispute stems from a disagreement over which sea resources the two sides can claim in the East China Sea, which separates China's eastern coast and Japan's southern island chain of Okinawa.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal countries can claim an economic zone extending 200 nautical miles (370km) from their shores. Both Japan and China signed the treaty, but the UN has until May 2009 to rule on the claims.
China also bases its claim on a separate international treaty that lets coastal countries extend their borders to the edge of the undersea continental shelf.
Japan and China, two of the world's biggest energy importers, have also clashed over securing priority to an oil pipeline being built in Russia.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and