Japan protests China's unilateral gas drilling in East China Sea

Japan has lodged a strong protest with China over what it says is Chinese use of a moored mobile offshore drilling vessel near the median line between the two countries in the East China Sea, in what Tokyo suspects is gas field development activity.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Minoru said at a regular press briefing Wednesday that China's continued unilateral development activities in the East China Sea and its attempts to create facts on the ground were "extremely regrettable." Japan had conveyed its objections to Beijing through diplomatic channels, he said, according to Kyodo News.

The Japan Coast Guard issued a navigational warning Sunday to ensure the safety of vessels transiting the area and confirmed that the Chinese drilling vessel was anchored at the scene.

Kihara said the boundaries of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the East China Sea had yet to be delimited.

"Taking this situation into account, we immediately and strongly protested to the Chinese side through diplomatic channels," he said.

The two countries reached an agreement in 2008 on joint development of gas fields in the area, pledging to cooperate without prejudicing each other's legal positions until the median line boundary was formally established.

Kihara said Japan had again strongly urged China to promptly resume negotiations toward concluding an international treaty based on that agreement and to implement it at the earliest opportunity.