China calls for all to reduce tension

Beijing has called on all parties to make their words and actions "conducive" to easing tension and building trust on the Korean Peninsula issue, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

Hua made the remarks at a daily news conference in Beijing in response to comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump earlier in the day about Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

During his ongoing state visit to Japan, Trump told a joint news conference in Tokyo with Abe that Japan would shoot missiles launched by the Democratic People's Republic Korea "out of the sky" if it bought the US weaponry needed for doing so, Reuters reported.

Trump stressed that the "era of strategic patience" with the DPRK is over.

Abe said he and Trump have been able to "display the unshakable bonds of the Japan-US alliance", Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported.

In response, Hua said all sides are very concerned about the situation in the peninsula, and "it has already been very complicated, sensitive and fragile".

China hopes that under the current situation, all the words and actions made by all parties involved can help ease tension, enhance mutual trust and bring the nuclear issue back on the track of dialogue, Hua said.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the Monday comments made by Abe and Trump are not helpful to resuming dialogue on the nuclear issue and may lead to a further deterioration of the situation.

Meanwhile, the word "Indo-Pacific" has made a topic item of Trump throughout his ongoing Asia trip, according to media reports.

Earlier this month, Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said an "Indo-Pacific" strategy, which is poised to be adopted by Tokyo and Washington, will be based on the US-Japan alliance, boost alignment with India and Australia and aims to contain China in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

"The degree to which US and Japanese strategies are aligned, both on the Korean Peninsula but also throughout the Indo-Pacific, is also unprecedented," a senior Trump administration official said on Sunday.

At the Monday news conference, Abe said: "We agreed that the maintenance and strengthening of a free and open maritime order is critically important for peace and stability in this region, and that Japan and the United States will strengthen our cooperation toward a free and open Indo-Pacific."

Trump will deliver a speech in support of the Indo-Pacific policy at the upcoming annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leader's Meeting in Danang, Vietnam, Reuters said.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 11/07/2017 page2)