Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Monday, meeting in Tokyo, have agreed to work toward formal talks on signing a treaty on the joint development of gas fields in the East China Sea. In view of the Chinese helicopters that flew close to two Japanese destroyers in April in the seas near Japan, they also agreed to launch a hot line between the two nations' leaders and to establish a maritime crisis management mechanism between the two nations' defense authorities to avoid clashes. The Japanese and Chinese ministers concerned also signed a memorandum aimed at ensuring food safety, following food-poisoning cases in Japan in late 2007 and early 2008 involving tainted Chinese-made gyoza dumplings.
Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Wen must implement the first two agreements as soon as possible to raise bilateral cooperation to a new level. As for gas exploration in the East China Sea, Japan and China had agreed in 2008 that Japanese firms would invest in a gas field already operated by China, that the two countries would jointly explore gas in a northern area and that they would continue talks on development of other gas fields. But criticism in China that Beijing had conceded too much and Japan's objection to unilateral development of another gas field by China have delayed the start of treaty talks. It is hoped that Monday's agreement will give impetus to starting anew.