AKIPRESS.COM - Taiwan’s new administration moved quickly to defuse a row over Japan’s southernmost territory that had escalated in the final days of the previous Taiwanese government, says The Asahi Shimbun.

The spokesman of the Executive Yuan – the executive branch of the Taipei-based government – said May 23 that Taipei will not take a “specific legal position” on the issue of Japan’s Okinotorishima islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The decision, announced three days after Tsai was inaugurated as Taiwan’s first female president, effectively overturns the declaration of her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, that the isles are merely rock reef and cannot serve as a basis for Tokyo’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The spokesman also said May 23 that it and the Japanese government have agreed to establish a dialogue mechanism for cooperation on maritime issues.

“Maintaining friendly ties with Japan is very important to Taiwan’s overall foreign relations,” the spokesman said.

The dispute started after the Japan Coast Guard arrested the captain of a Taiwanese fishing boat operating in the EEZ around Okinotorishima on April 25.

Protests over the arrest erupted in Taiwan, and Ma began asserting that the islands were rocks.

Japan lodged a protest over Ma’s description. But Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration dispatched patrol vessels to Japan’s EEZ, and the Ma government issued instructions to designate the isles as reefs in official documents.

However, the Tsai administration is set to call off the coast guard patrol missions.

“The two sides should not take any action that would add to tensions,” the spokesman said.

Under international rules, an EEZ cannot be set around rocks.

China and South Korea have claimed that Okinotorishima islands are rocks, but Taiwan had largely stayed out of that row until Ma’s comments.

Tsai, who values close ties with Japan, appears determined to improve diplomatic relations.