Defense officials from Japan and China have agreed to accelerate efforts to launch a telephone "hotline" around this spring, to avoid accidental military clashes.
The decision was made at a Tuesday meeting in Tokyo that lasted for about 80 minutes. Officials in attendance included Atsushi Ando, deputy director general of the Defense Ministry's Defense Policy Bureau, and Zhang Baoqun, deputy director of the Chinese defense ministry's International Military Cooperation Office.
The hotline is a pillar of the "maritime and air liaison mechanism" that the two nations launched in June 2018 as an emergency communication system. It was also discussed at the Japan-China summit meeting last November.
