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China, Japan resume talks on disputed waters Japan will ask China to disclose information about its exploration of oil and gas fields in the East China Sea during the current round of talks, which began on Friday. "We call for information disclosure. Without it, we would call (on China) to cease unilaterally proceeding with (oil and gas field) development or production," the Kyodo News Agency quoted Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura as saying on Friday. China's chief delegate, Cui Tiankai, who heads the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department, has said the sea "should not be an obstacle separating the two countries but a bond connecting them." The talks are aimed at easing tensions over the disputed waters. China's exploration of oil and gas is in waters China insists are in Chinese territory. The two countries will also discuss the possibility of joint development of gas fields in the disputed areas. Details of discussions at the latest two-day negotiations will not be released until Saturday, according to a source with the Chinese Foreign Ministry. According to international law, countries have a right to claim waters up to 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometres) from their shores. However, the width of the water between China and Japan is less than 400 nautical miles (about 740 kilometres), giving rise to the dispute. Japan claims a "demarcation line" equidistant between the shores of the two countries, while China maintains the border is further east where the continental shelf ends. In July, China protested the Japanese Government's approval of a Japanese oil and gas company's request to drill in a gas field east of the "demarcation line," saying that such activity is a "severe provocation and violation" of China's sovereignty. President Zhou Shouwei of CNOOC, China's third-largest oil company, said on August 30 that the Chinese side had signed a document of intent 10 years ago with Japan's government-affiliated oil corporation Japan National Oil Corp (JNOC) to jointly develop the disputed areas. However, JNOC was disbanded at the end of March this year, and no action to further joint exploration has yet been taken. Jiang Ruiping, professor with the Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University, said on Friday that tension on the issue can be traced to the increasing energy imports of the two countries since the 1990s. "Before then, Japan imported oil from China, the conflict gradually heightened when China became an oil importer in 1993," Jiang said. "Fortunately, both countries have recognized that peaceful consultation is the only way out although it will be an arduous task." (China Daily 10/01/2005 page1)
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