By Keita Nakamura,
Japan and China agreed Friday to closely communicate at various levels, but their top diplomats remained divided over Tokyo's plan to release treated radioactive water into the sea from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and China's increasing military activities.
During their one-hour talks in Jakarta, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and China's top diplomat Wang Yi reiterated their positions on bilateral issues, but they shared the importance of cooperation in areas such as the economy and people-to-people exchanges, the Japanese government said.
At the beginning of the meeting that was open to media, Hayashi told Wang, "The Japan-China relationship holds numerous potentialities, but at the same time, it faces many challenges and serious concerns, so we are in a critical phase."
Wang said he hopes China and Japan will enhance relations to meet "the needs of a new era" by taking an opportunity of the 45th anniversary of the conclusion of the 1978 bilateral Peace and Friendship Treaty.
Their meeting took place on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related ministerial gatherings in Jakarta.
The bilateral talks came as the two Asian countries aim to stabilize their relationship through dialogue, despite trading barbs over Japan's plan to discharge the treated water from the Fukushima disaster site into the Pacific Ocean sometime during the summer.
The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded in a report submitted to the Japanese government last week that the plan to release the water aligns with global safety standards and will have "a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment."
But China has urged Japan to desist, saying that the IAEA's safety review is not a "green light" for discharging what it calls "nuclear-contaminated water" into the sea. Beijing has hinted at tightening its restrictions on Japanese food imports.
Hayashi, who has accused China of disseminating "incorrect information," urged it to deal with the matter "from a scientific standpoint," while telling Wang that Japan is ready to communicate with its neighbor from such a perspective, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
At a press conference after talking with Wang, Hayashi said he also conveyed to China his objection to "politicizing" the planned Fukushima water release.
Wang said the nuclear-contaminated water discharge into the ocean is a matter of "human life and health," and Japan should "scientifically discuss various ways" to deal with the water accumulating at the Fukushima complex, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was triggered by a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011. The water is supposed to be released after undergoing a process that removes most of the radionuclides except tritium.
China had asked Indonesia, this year's ASEAN chair, to express its opposition to the water discharge in a statement on the group's regional forum on Friday, a diplomatic source said.
No ASEAN members, however, referred to the planned Fukushima water release during the forum, another diplomatic source familiar with the meeting said.
Hayashi, meanwhile, voiced "grave concern" about China's intensifying military activities, including near the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and drills jointly conducted with Russia near Japan, the Japanese ministry said.
Wang said that Tokyo regards Beijing as the biggest strategic challenge and is "playing up China's threat," which is inconsistent with the reality of Sino-Japanese relations, according to the Chinese ministry.
Moreover, Hayashi underscored the significance of peace and stability in the strait near Taiwan, it added, in a veiled expression of wariness against China's military pressure on the self-ruled democratic island that Beijing sees as its own territory.
Hayashi and Wang were visiting Indonesia's capital to join a series of foreign ministerial gatherings, including the ASEAN-plus-three talks on Thursday involving Japan, China and South Korea, and the 27-member forum, where U.S. and Russian delegates are also scheduled to attend.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was absent from the multinational meetings due to health reasons. Wang, who is ranked above Qin in the Communist-ruled nation, participated in them.
Last November, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to seek "constructive and stable" bilateral relations at their meeting in Bangkok, the first face-to-face summit between the two countries since December 2019.
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