China and Japan will hold security talks today and tomorrow for the first time in four years. According to the Japanese expert Radboud Molijn, the fact that there is talk again is good news, but in the meantime tensions have not eased.
After 2019, things calmed down between Beijing and Tokyo. The corona pandemic was somewhere in between, but tensions were also rising in the meantime. About the disputed islands in the East China Sea, about defense exercises and also about the war in Ukraine.
This week they are sitting around the table again, and according to Radboud Molijn, director of Dujat (Foundation of the Dutch and Japanese Federation of Trade), this can be described as quite remarkable. He describes the relationship between the two as “hot economics, cold politics”. “Politically the two will never get along, but economically they need each other.” $300 billion is traded between the two countries every year.
China provokes
According to Molijn, these talks will include doubling Japan’s defense budget, which Tokyo recently announced. “The Chinese look at him with suspicion. While the Japanese say: look at you. They point to, among other things, China’s provocations at the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.”
Even when it comes to the war in Ukraine, the two are diametrically opposed. China’s top foreign representative, Wang Yi, was in Moscow this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While Japan has announced that it will support Ukraine with the huge amount of 5.5 billion euros.
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
