TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) -China has initiated the installation of a new structure on the west side of the geographical equidistance between Japan and China in the East China Sea, the Japanese foreign ministry said on Tuesday, adding it has lodged a protest with China.
The ministry said in a statement “It is extremely regrettable” that China is pressing ahead with unilateral development when the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf in the East China Sea have not yet been delimited.
Japan requests that China cease its unilateral development and to resume talks on the implementation of a 2008 agreement, in which the two countries agreed to cooperate on natural resources development in the East China Sea, it also said.
There was no immediate response from the Chinese foreign ministry to Reuters’ inquiries on the matter.
Japan’s ties with China have been plagued by a territorial dispute over a group of Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, as well as the legacy of Japan’s past military aggression.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Xiuhao Chen in Beijing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
