After a decade of talks, Japan and China agreed on Wednesday to set up a security hotline to defuse any maritime confrontations between the two Asian powers.
The deal is the latest result of a push to improve ties strained by lingering acrimony over Japan’s wartime occupation of swathes of China and a dispute over the ownership of islets in the East China Sea.
In a public ceremony after a summit in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang oversaw the signing of a pact to set up within 30 days a hotline for senior defense officials to communicate during incidents involving each others’ naval vessels or military aircraft.
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