《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwan and Japan sign agreement on emergency and rescue operations at sea

By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The second Taiwan-Japan bilateral meeting on maritime cooperation yesterday concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding （MOU） on emergency and rescue operations at sea, while little progress was made on bridging the gap on the issue of the Okinotori atoll.

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The MOU was signed by Taiwan-Japan Relations Association （TJRA） President Chiou I-jen （邱義仁） and his Japanese counterpart, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi, at the two-day meeting’s closing ceremony at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday morning.

The agreement would allow Taipei and Tokyo to send help to vessels that have an accident in the other side’s surrounding sea areas, Coast Guard Administration Deputy Director Hu Yi-gang （胡意剛） said at a post-meeting news conference.

“If, for example, a Taiwanese fishing boat had an accident near the Japan-controlled Okinotori atoll and reports it to our fisheries agency, the agency would contact the Japan Coast Guard via a communication channel established by the MOU and it would immediately send help,” Hu said.

Rescuers would be sent by the Japanese side in the hypothetical scenario because the atoll is too far away from Taiwan, Hu said, adding that if a Japanese vessel broke down near Taiwanese territory, Taiwan would help.

Meanwhile, disagreement over the Okinotori atoll persists, but both sides have agreed to continue discussing the matter to maintain fishermen’s safety and conserve fisheries resources in the area, said TJRA Secretary-General Chang Shu-ling （張淑玲）, who headed the Taiwanese delegation.

“Taiwan and Japan have their own stances on the atoll, which is why it is not easy to resolve the matter. Although both sides have demonstrated sincerity and goodwill in addressing the issue, a satisfactory result cannot be expected after only one or two rounds of talks,” Chang said, adding that the gap between opinions has narrowed.

However, she declined to reveal in what aspects Taipei and Tokyo are beginning to see eye-to-eye, saying that like every negotiation, no details should be disclosed before a consensus is made.

The first maritime cooperation meeting took place in Tokyo in October last year, after a dialogue mechanism was established amid growing tension between the two sides following the Japan Coast Guard’s seizure in April last year of a Taiwanese fishing boat operating about 150 nautical miles （277.8km） east-southeast of the Okinotori atoll.

Japan classifies Okinotori as an island and claims a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone around it, but there is no international consensus on whether Okinotori is an island or a rock.

The Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） administration has refused to take a legal stance on the classification until the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf delivers a ruling, but it urges Japan to respect the rights of Taiwan and other nations to fish and freely navigate the area.

The DPP administration’s stance is softer than that of the previous Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） government, which officially declared Okinotori a rock.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES