Japan and the United States emphasize the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait – 07/21/2021

TOKYO, July 20 (EFE) .- Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Togo Mori and US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Tuesday stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in Japan, amid mounting Chinese military tensions in the Taiwan Strait region.

“Both parties enthusiastically rejected China’s efforts to unilaterally change the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and stressed the importance of peace and stability along the Taiwan Strait,” the Japanese government said in a statement.

The two diplomats shared “serious concerns” about the human rights situation in “Hong Kong” and the “Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang” in China.

Mori and Sherman stressed on North Korea that Tokyo and Washington would “continue to work together to achieve Pyongyang’s complete nuclearization.” According to them, it is necessary to maintain “close cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea.”

Sherman is scheduled to meet with Mori and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jung-kun in Tokyo on Wednesday, which he hopes will strengthen their cooperation.

Sherman’s visit to the region seeks to strengthen ties with US regional allies in East Asia, weakened by President Donald Trump’s government, and sends a message of strength and unity to China, as well as reminding North Korea that Washington and its allies continue to open the door.

The visit comes at a time when relations between Tokyo and Seoul are at a low ebb, at a time when North Korea is fully focused on managing the Kovit-19 epidemic that has already caused great economic damage.

Last Monday, South Korea refused to allow President Moon Jae-in to attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics and hold its first summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suka, citing “insufficient” understanding between the two neighbors.

Since 2018, Japan has protested against several South Korean court rulings in favor of Koreans enslaved by Japanese companies during the colonial period of the peninsula (1910-1945).

In response, the Japanese government punished Seoul with restrictions on exports, which were reciprocated by the South Korean side, leaving the relationship at its worst for decades.