Japan, China Make First Call On New Military Hotline, Ahead Of G7, Quad Summits

This development comes just a week before Japan is scheduled to host the G7 summit where the bloc’s relationship with China will be high on the agenda.

Japan and China made their first call on a new defence hotline. ( Image Source :Getty Images )

Japan and China on Tuesday made their first call on a new military hotline after years of negotiations to set up the communication channel. As per a report by AFP, the development was confirmed by the defence ministries of both countries. Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, in a statement, said that he held a conversation for 20 minutes with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu, the news agency reported. 

"Hamada mentioned the existence of security concerns between Japan and China, such as the situation in the East China Sea," it said.

He "stated that it is necessary to have candid communication especially when there are concerns about Japan-China relations".

The call was confirmed by Beijing, too, saying the air and maritime hotline would "contribute to further maintaining regional peace and stability".

The hotline was launched on March 31 this year and had been mooted by both sides for over a decade as a way to avert unexpected clashes in the East China Sea.

Tensions between the two East Asian countries had been simmering over a territorial dispute on islets in the area known as the Senkaku by Tokyo and the Diaoyu by Beijing. 

This development comes just a week before Japan is scheduled to host the G7 summit to be attended by US President Joe Biden where the bloc’s relationship with China will be high on the agenda. US and Japan will also be attending the Quad meeting along with Australia and India on May 24 which hovers around China’s growing aggression in the region.  

Wary of its neighbour's growing military power, Japan has publicly protested the presence of Chinese vessels around the disputed islets, and in other regions including near Okinawa.

World’s second and third largest economies, China and Japan are also key trading partners and last year marked the 50 years of diplomatic ties. 

But ties between them are often fraught, and soured in December when Japan announced a security overhaul including more defence spending, calling China its "greatest strategic challenge ever".

However, PM Kishida recently said he wanted “constructive and stable” ties with Beijing. 

Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping also held a meeting last year on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.