TOKYO (AP) – The Japanese foreign minister and defense minister on Wednesday expressed strong concern to their British counterparts on Wednesday about a new Chinese maritime law that came into force two days earlier.
“Japan remains vigilant and is paying close attention to its effects on us,” Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in online talks between the two parties. “I believe the law should not be used in a way that violates international law.”
Japan regards China’s increasing influence and military activities in the region as a security threat and has intensified cooperation with the US, Australia, Southeast Asian countries and Britain.
The new Chinese Coast Guard Act, which increases the possibility of clashes with local competitors, empowers the power to take ‘all necessary measures, including the use of weapons, when illegally infringing on national sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction by foreign organizations. or individuals at sea. ”
It also authorizes the Coast Guard to demolish structures of other countries built on areas claimed by China and to seize or leave foreign vessels entering China’s territorial waters illegally.
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“We would like to share your concerns with you” about the law, Motegi, accompanied by Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, told British counterparts Dominic Raab and Ben Wallace.
China’s coastguard is active near controversial East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but claimed by Beijing. China also claims virtually the entire South China Sea.
The Coast Guard’s activities regularly brought it into contact with the Japanese Coast Guard and Air Force.
In a joint statement released after the talks, the ministers expressed ‘serious concern’ about the growing tensions in the regional sea and urged all parties’ to exercise restraint and refrain from activities that could cause tension, especially militarization and coercion. ‘
They also expressed “serious concern” about China’s repression of the opposition in Hong Kong and “gross human rights violations against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang”, according to the statement.
The ministers also agreed to deepen defense and security cooperation between Japan and Britain to ensure a “free and open Indo-Pacific” vision that promotes Japan with the US, Australia and India to counter China.
Japan and Britain are jointly developing an air-to-air missile defense system and increasing the interoperability of defense equipment and technology as their troops work more closely together.
Kishi welcomed the planned dispatch of a British aircraft carrier strike group to East Asia this year as part of Britain’s growing commitment to the region.
Wallace said the visit to Asia for the strike group, led by the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, ‘was the most important deployment of the Royal Navy in a generation’.
The British government, which wants to boost the country’s global profile after Brexit, said the UK-Japan meeting was part of an “Indo-Pacific tilt” towards Asian allies.
Raab said the new focus “shows our shared priorities and common strategic interests from maritime security to climate change and free trade.”
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Associated Press author Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Originally published