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Warm spring on sea

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-20 07:43

By agreeing on joint explorations for gas in an area of common choice in the East China Sea, China and Japan have taken the first step to solving their dispute on the gas deposits in the sea.

It is a small area but the agreement sends a symbolic message.

The first such move for joint explorations in an area which covers only a little over 2,600 square kilometers, it shows that China and Japan can resort to dialogue and cooperation to solve their dispute over the gas deposits in the East China Sea.

They can build the momentum for further dialogue so as to define larger parts of the sea for possible joint explorations.

The two countries achieved the breakthrough when President Hu Jintao visited Japan early last month. They are resolved to turn the East China Sea into waters of cooperation.

With their good intentions reflected in the statement the two countries issued on Wednesday, they need to discuss the details of the deal.

The agreement is marked by flexibility and pragmatism. The legal positions of both countries have been preserved in the deal.

The two countries' discord over the East China Sea was a difficult knot to untie. The issue was a thorn in their bilateral ties in the past several years when the political relations soured.

In the late 70s and early 80s of the last century, China came up with the proposal on "shelving the dispute and exploring the East China Sea jointly". Its plan failed due to many complicated situations and the deterioration in bilateral relations.

They started painstaking negotiations over the detailed project on joint explorations of the gas deposits in the sea in 2004.

A "warm spring" has come to the China-Japan relations since last year. The two governments have reached a consensus on making the East China Sea "a sea of peace, cooperation and friendship".

This set the course of the two countries' negotiations over the dispute. The win-win deal between China and Japan will unfold new experiments with joint investments, joint explorations and sharing of resources in the chosen area of the sea.

However, the statement claims that the joint exploration is a transitional step to protecting each other's legal position till a demarcation line is drawn.

It is one more example of China's strategy of "seeking common ground while shelving the differences" in order to resolve its disputes with other countries.

(China Daily 06/20/2008 page8)