On Tuesday, the foreign ministry of Japan announced that it would examine the “options” and will make “preparations” to support Taiwan should China continues to increase its military assault.
When asked by reporters how Tokyo feels about Beijing’s record-breaking flying overflights across Taiwanese airspace in the last few weeks, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said, “this problem can be settled without a fight between the two parties through direct negotiations.”
“Additionally, rather than watching what’s happening, we would like to consider the different scenarios that might arise and think about the options available to us and the necessary preparations to take,” he said at the press conference on October 5.
“Motegi’s remarks about Taiwan represent a change from the past when he explicitly mentioned the possibility of involvement. They were intended to draw the attention of the international community to the matter and pressing China,” Reuters noted in a report on Tuesday. The publication cited the research of experts on politics.
“That was never said … however, this time they’re taking a firmer position,” Yoichiro Sato, an international relations professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, told Reuters on October 5.
Japan’s usage of strong language in discussing the Taiwan-China dispute on October 5 marked a significant shift in its rhetoric, as per Robert Ward, a London-based senior fellow in Japanese Security Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
It’s drawing a line and thereby creating expectations.” the official explained to Reuters.
“The New government should go on with the tougher line as Motegi is demonstrating. This is in line with Japan’s larger effort to bring balance to China from a vantage point of strength.” Ward opined
Japanese defense minister Kishi Nobuo seemed to walk back Motegi’s bold and uncharacteristically provocative statement on Tuesday in separate remarks to the media. Tokyo hopes that Beijing and Taipei reach a compromise on their territorial dispute through “direct dialog,” he told journalists at the press conference held on October 5.
Japanese defense minister Kishi Nobuo seemed to walk back Motegi’s bold and uncharacteristically provocative statement on Tuesday in separate remarks to the media. Tokyo hopes that Beijing and Taipei reach a compromise on their territorial dispute through “direct dialog,” he told journalists at the press conference held on October 5.
“It is Japan’s consistent position that we wish that the issue concerning Taiwan will be resolved via an open dialogue between all parties in the conflict,” Kishi assured journalists.
Japan is leaning towards preventing Chinese military invasions in Taiwan since Taiwan is quite close to Japan’s Senkaku islands, upon which Beijing rules illegally.
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