WASHINGTON —
The United States urged China Friday to set up an emergency hotline
with Japan and South Korea to avoid confusion in its newly-declared
airspace.Washington does not recognize Beijing’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which extends over the East China Sea and islands disputed with Japan [Senkaku/Diaoyu], and has called on China not to press ahead with its implementation.
“As we work through this process, they need to do a few things right now to immediately lower tensions,” deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
“China should work with other countries, including Japan and South Korea, to establish confidence-building measures, including emergency communications channels to address the dangers that its recent announcement has created,” she added.
Washington has said that its military aircraft in the area will ignore Beijing’s demands to file flight plans with Chinese authorities, but has urged commercial airlines to stick by Federal Aviation Administration guidelines to stay safe.
- Harf said one of the potential dangers was that because the zone spread into airspace administered by other countries, Beijing had “created a situation in which two different authorities claim to give orders to civilian aircraft, which could potentially create confusion.”
- It “creates a destabilizing dynamic, which could compel China’s neighbors to take further actions to respond,” she told reporters.
“As China’s economy grows, its stake in regional peace and stability will continue to grow as well, because it has so much more to lose,” he said.
“That’s why China will bear increasing responsibility to contribute positively to peace and security.”
Harf said while there was no treaty governing how nations set up such air zones, “there are established practices of states to ensure the safety of civil and state aircraft.”
As a regional power, Beijing must seek “to reduce the risk of accidental conflict and miscalculation, to not do things that raise tensions in the region, to act responsibly,” she added.
Yoshihide Soeya, a professor at Keio University in Tokyo and a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, warned of risks from overlapping air zones.
He said that a hotline between Japan and China would prove helpful, noting that Japan and South Korea, despite often rocky relations, already have one.
japantoday.com
7/12/13
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Asian nations urge peace in sea disputes, unlikely to blame China...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Asian nations must ensure that territorial disputes do not erupt into conflict, leaders said on Friday, with Japan and the Philippines reaffirming their commitment to freedom of flight as concerns grow over China's new air defense zone.
Beijing's growing military strength has sparked concern in Asia and tension has spiked in the last month after China announced the air defense zone including islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Japan.
The air defense identification zone has triggered protests from the United States and its close allies, Japan and South Korea
China is also locked in territorial rows with other Asian nations, including the Philippines, over wide swathes of the South China Sea and has said it might set up a similar zone there.
"We reiterated our commitment to uphold the rule of law, promote the peaceful settlement of disputes, and to assure freedom of flight in international air space," Philippine President Benigno Aquino told reporters in Tokyo after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Aquino stopped short of mentioning China in the media appearance with Abe, who has made stronger ties with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) a priority, visiting all of them during his first year in office.
The charm offensive, which has been underlined by hefty Japanese aid over the years and rising private investment, culminates in a three-day Tokyo gathering that began on Friday and is billed officially as celebrating 40 years of diplomatic ties.
The final statement from the summit, due to be released on Saturday, is likely to state its support for freedom of the air and the seas - but stop short of mentioning China.
Chinese state media kept up the invective against Japan's complaints over the air space zone on Friday, with the official Xinhua news agency saying Abe was going to "stage again its China-is-to-blame game" at the ASEAN summit........http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/us-japan-asean-philippines-idUSBRE9BC04I20131213?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
13/12/13