Japan and Taiwan held a one-day meeting Wednesday in Tokyo to prepare for resuming talks on fishing in contested waters in the East China Sea, agreeing to speed up the process to reach an early agreement, according to Tokyo's quasi-diplomatic mission in Taipei.
Japan's Interchange Association, which handles negotiations with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, said in a statement that it had a "constructive and candid" exchange of opinions with its Taiwan counterpart, the Association of East Asian Relations.
They agreed to accelerate the negotiation process and to meet again soon, it said. Their meeting — the second round of preparatory talks, following the first held last Nov. 30 — was also attended by officials from the two countries' governments, fisheries authorities and coast guards, in an observer capacity.