TOKYO, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Japan said it will hold another round of talks with China on parts of the energy-rich East China Sea that both states claim.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, agreed to hold senior working-level talks Sept. 21 in Beijing, Japanese government officials said. The agreement came Thursday in Sydney, Australia, during a meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Japan says the Chunxiao field, which is located some 2 kilometers inside China's claimed side, is the median line separating the two countries' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea. China does not recognize that median line.
The two sides failed to reach an agreement on the demarcation of their respective exclusive economic zones, an area that allows under international law coastal countries to control maritime resources up to 200 nautical miles offshore. But the area between Japan and China is not enough to give the two countries such zones: The width of much of the East China Sea is less than 400 nautical miles.
Japan says it fears China might siphon off resources that could be buried under the seabed on the Japanese side of the median line.
