Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Japanese parliamentarian Nobuo Kishi, a brother of Prime Minister Shinzo
Japanese parliamentarian Nobuo Kishi (middle) visited President-elect Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on May 5.
Abe, visited President-elect Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei Thursday amid tension between the two countries.
After talks at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters lasting one hour, Kishi said that both sides had agreed to solve the current crisis over Okinotori quickly and in a low-key way.
On Thursday, a Taiwanese fishing trawler returned to the island with its captain and crew after being held by Japan in an incident which provoked a war of words.
Japan claims Okinotori, where it apprehended the vessel, is an island, allowing it to decree a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around it. However, Taiwan retorted that the 9-square-meter area was only an atoll, and that Japan’s action against the ship was therefore illegal.
The dispute threatens to continue as Taiwan has promised it would send out coast guard vessels to protect Taiwanese fishermen in the area. [FULL STORY]
