Taiwan and Japan will convene the first meeting of their fishery cooperation and dialogue mechanism on July 28. It had been reported that the thorny topic of fishing rights around the Okinotori atoll would be off the table because of time constraints. But Presidential Office spokesperson Alex Huang said Friday that this was not the case.
A Taiwanese fishing boat was detained earlier this year in the waters off Okinotori, where Japan claims an exclusive economic zone that Taiwan does not recognize.
The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement on Friday saying that while Okinotori certainly belongs to Japan, its classification as an island or a reef has yet to be resolved under international law. The ministry said it is not the place of Taiwan’s government to assert the classification of Okinotori. But until it is legally classified, Japan should treat the waters around it as international waters open to fishing activities from other countries, the statement said.
The tone of the statement was muted compared to government statements at the time of the controversy earlier this year. That was before Taiwan had one of its own islands, Taiping Island in the South China Sea, downgraded from an “island” to a “rock” by the international tribunal in The Hague.