China did not make any formal proposals Friday on how to resolve its dispute with Japan over gas exploration rights in the East China Sea, despite signs it was willing to do so, Japan's delegate to the one-day meeting said.
But the two sides reached a "better understanding" after their discussions and plan to meet more often to try to reach a solution, said Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Another Foreign Ministry official said the two sides also agreed to boost talks on how to prevent accidents at sea, where both countries are in the habit of dispatching ships and planes to monitor each other.
"There was no proposal from China in the formal portion of the talks," Sasae said after the eighth round of talks on the topic concluded. "But we discussed both formally and informally the direction we should be proceeding in the future."