Japan and China agree to set up defence hotline amid territorial tensions
CTV
The defence ministers of Japan and China on Monday agreed to set up a joint communication hotline by the end of 2022, a news release from Japan's Defence Ministry said, amid tensions between the East Asian neighbors.
China's Defence Ministry confirmed the hotline agreement in a statement without giving a date for its implementation.
The agreement -- reached during a two-hour video conference between Japan's Nobuo Kishi and China's Wei Fenghe -- comes with their countries in dispute over Taiwan and issues in the East and South China seas.
The ministers discussed those differences during the meeting, including their competing claims to an uninhabited rocky island chain in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but which China claims as its sovereign territory.
Japan has administered the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyus in China since 1972, but tensions over the chain, 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometres) southwest of Tokyo, have simmered for years.
