Zabaniyah
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2011
- Messages
- 14,925
- Reaction score
- 7
- Country
- Location
Beijing seeks Dhaka's support in island dispute with Tokyo | Bangladesh | bdnews24.comDhaka, Sept 30 (bdnews24.com)Beijing has sought Dhaka's support in a dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islands with Tokyo.
Chinese Ambassador Li Jun had already conveyed a message to the Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) and sought support, Political Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Yang Zhaohui said at a press conference Sunday.
"We have also written a letter to the foreign ministry seeking support."
The uninhabited islets, whose nearby waters are thought to hold potentially rich natural gas reserves, are known as the Diaoyu islands in China and the Senkaku islands in Japan.
China condemned the Japanese government's purchase of the islands earlier this month from their private owner, a step that sparked protests across China and prompted Beijing to curb bilateral trade and tourism.
China has urged Japan to immediately stop all activities that violate Beijing territorial sovereignty and resolve the issue of disputed Diaoyu islands through negotiation, the Political Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Dhaka said.
"The moves taken by Japan are totally illegal and invalid, which can in no way change the historical fact that Japan 'stole' the Diaoyu island from China," he told a press conference on the recent conflict over the islands that has soured ties between Asia's two largest economies.
When asked what China would do, Zhaohui said it was universal position of any government to protect its sovereignty and integrity and China was not an exception and it would do whatever possible to protect its territory.
Citing historical and legal evidence, Zhaohui said China and Japan had signed Treaty of Peace and Friendship in the 1970s and the top leadership of both the countries left the issue of Diaoyu islands to be resolved later.
"But recently Japan has taken unilateral measures concerning the island and we want Tokyo to take concrete actions to correct its mistakes," he said.
The islands were put under Japan's control in 1895, included under the post-World War Two US military occupation of Japan's Okinawa from 1945-72 and then returned to Tokyo by US authorities in a decision China and Taiwan later contested.
Japan restated Tokyo's position that no sovereignty dispute exists and that Japan began surveying the islands a decade before deciding to incorporate them in 1895, and there exists no evidence that the islands belonged to China.
China has declared the islands "sacred territory" and Taiwan has also asserted its own sovereignty over the area.
However the matter may be, we must remain neutral
