Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday it is working to sign an agreement with Japan governing scientific research in disputed waters…
TAIPEI —
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday it is working to sign an agreement with Japan governing scientific research in disputed waters of the East China Sea.
In a statement, the ministry said Taiwan and Japan agreed last year to establish a working group to discuss scientific research in overlapping exclusive economic zones.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry was responding to a report published Sunday by the Sankei Shimbun, a right-wing Japanese daily, quoting the Japan Coast Guard as saying that last year, Taiwan conducted the most unauthorized maritime research activities in Japan’s EEZ in a decade.
The newspaper also pointedly noted that the “unauthorized activities” took place particularly in waters surrounding Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, as well as the Senkaku Islands which Taiwan and China both claim. The Senkakus are known as the Tiaoyutai in Taiwan and the Diaoyu in China.
The ministry said the government of Taiwan asserts the right to conduct scientific research in what it considers its EEZ.
But it further noted that Taiwanese and Japanese officials met in Tokyo last Oct.
