Japan has suggested setting up a military hotline with China to avoid clashes between the two countries, which are at loggerheads over a group of disputed islands, Tokyo’s defence minister said on Saturday.
The proposal came after Tokyo accused a Chinese frigate of locking its weapons-tracking radar on a Japanese destroyer - a claim Beijing has denied.
The incident, which Japan said happened last week, marked the first time the two nations’ navies have locked horns in a territorial dispute that provoked fears of armed conflict breaking out between the two.
The neighbours - also the world’s second and third-largest economies - have seen ties sour over the uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu by Beijing, which also claims them.
“What’s important is to create a hotline, so that we would be able to communicate swiftly when this kind of incident happens,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.
He said Tokyo told Beijing on Thursday through its embassy in China that it wants to resume talks on creating a “seaborne communication mechanism” between military officials of both countries.