Dialogue resumes on new maritime liaison

After years of almost complete silence, Chinese and Japanese defense authorities resumed talks on establishing a maritime liaison mechanism to reduce the risk of an accident in the air or at sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Observers said there is guarded optimism that both countries could sign an agreement on the mechanism in the near future, if Tokyo is able to uphold the four-point agreement reached earlier this month on handling and improving bilateral relations.

China and Japan had agreed on the basics of establishing the liaison platform, and the conditions to launch it were met, but "due to well-known reasons", work was at a standstill, Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a news conference. He was referring to Japan's illegal nationalization of China's Diaoyu Islands in September 2012.