April 28, 2010
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Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has defended the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' monitoring of Chinese navy vessels that were conducting drills near Japanese waters.
Okada was speaking at a session of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Responding to the Chinese ambassador's recent criticism of the move, Okada said it is not a violation of law to monitor developments if a certain distance is maintained.On Tuesday, Ambassador Cheng Yonghua told reporters that a Japanese destroyer is to blame as it continuously tailed the Chinese fleet conducting drills on the high seas.
Japan has lodged a protest with China over what it sees as "dangerous" approaches by Chinese ship-borne helicopters toward Japanese destroyers, deployed for surveillance of the Chinese fleet, on April 8th and 21st.
Foreign Minister Okada also told the committee meeting that both countries need to work out an arrangement to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
2010/04/28 18:10(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)
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