China-Japan talks on East China Sea "conducive"

China and Japan held "conducive" discussions during the eighth round of talks on the East China Sea issues here on Friday, agreeing to hold fresh talks in late June.

The one-day of talks, were held behind closed-doors as usual, at the Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

The two sides expressed their respective views on the joint development of the gas and oil resources in East China Sea in both formal and informal ways, Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

"The discussions are in-depth and conducive,"the press release said,adding that both sides agreed the next round of talks would be held in late June.

Chinese Foreign Ministry's Director of Asian Affairs Department Hu Zhengyue and head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kenichiro Sasae attended the meeting as top negotiators.

Director-General of Japan's Natural Resources and Energy Agency Harufumi Mochizuki was also presented.

Sasae said after the talks that there was a "better understanding" between the two sides after the discussions and that they plan to meet more often to try to reach a solution.

"There was no proposal from China in the formal portion of the talks," Sasae was quoted by the Japanese Kyodo News Agency as saying. "But we discussed both formally and informally the direction we should be proceeding in the future."

The current talks took place after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan last month, during which China and Japan agreed to speed up talks over the joint development of oil and gas fields in a "relatively wide area that is acceptable to both sides", and to report concrete measures to the countries' leaders by this fall.

In a bid to meet that goal, the two sides agreed to hold the talks at least once a month, Sasae said.

Liu Jiangyong, a professor on Japanese studies at the prestigious Tsinghua University, told Xinhua that both sides sensed "heavier pressure" from their governments this time as they are required to propose a joint development plan.

Increasing the frequency of the talks indicated the two sides have "sincere will" to solve the issue, Liu said.

"As this is the first negotiation held following the five-point consensus reached by the Chinese and Japanese leaders last month, each side has paid great attention to this round of talks," Hu said in his opening remarks Friday morning.

Calling the talks "a new beginning" for both sides, Hu said China is ready to make joint efforts with Japan to push forward consultations.

China and Japan have never conducted a demarcation of the East China Sea and China doesn't recognize Japan's unilateral claim of a so-called "median line" in the East China Sea.

Both sides want to shelve their differences over energy resources in the East China Sea by jointly developing gas fields, but have been unable to reach consensus on the location of the projects.

"One possible way to solve the disputes might be to seek non-sensitive places in the disputed areas as locations for joint development, "said Liu.

The talks are testing the wisdom of both sides' diplomacy, Liu said,calling for more flexibility from the Japanese side on the issue.

The two countries have conducted seventh rounds of East China Sea talks since October 2004. The last round of talks was conducted in Tokyo in March.

Source: Xinhua