Washington, D.C. - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to engage Chinese President Xi Jinping in establishing a dedicated communications line between Tokyo and Beijing to prevent possible accidents leading to armed confrontation in the disputed Senkaku islands or Diaoyu islands.  

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Abe aired his views on how the two countries can better handle the dispute in an interview with Washington Post.

The Japanese Prime Minister is heading to Beijing on Monday to join 21 other leaders of Asia-Pacific rim nations for their annual summit on promoting free trade, and is hoping to meet his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the APEC summit.

In recent years, the Senkaku islands located some 170 kilometers northeast of the southern most Japanese island of Ishigaki, Okinawa prefecture and 170 kilometers from Taiwan became the center of intense diplomatic and maritime row between China and Japan.

"I would like to impart a call for the initiation of the maritime communication mechanism, which would be a communication channel to prevent an accidental clash," Abe said in the Post interview.

Abe stressed the need for the two countries has a responsibility towards prosperity and peace in the region with hopes returning to the basics by developing cooperative relations anchored on strategic interests common to Tokyo and Beijing. 

No formal announcements have been made on an official or informal meeting between Xi and Abe during the two-day APEC summit in the Chinese capital.

Since Abe assumed the premiership in December of 2012 and Xi as Chinese President on March of 2013, the two largest economies of Asia have avoided any formal meetings as a result of a heightened diplomatic row over the Diaoyu Islands.

Since 2008, the row over the islands started to escalate when Taiwan and China increased its presence near the islands by escorting its fishing fleets to fish in the marine rich waters off the chain of small islands. 

Japan formally annexed the unpopulated islands in 1879 and later integrated it into domain of the then Ryukyu kingdom, vassal territories to the then ruling Meiji empire in Tokyo. For China, it maintains its historic rights over the region that pre-dates the Japanese annexation.

Abe maintained that Japan sees the Senkaku as an integral part of the country's territory based on the context of history and international law. The Japanese premier maintains and stressed often his country's continuing control over the disputed territory. 

The establishment of a communications hotline between Beijing and Tokyo is seen by Abe as a means to immediately diffuse any possible tensions during occasions where Chinese fishing boats and its Coast Guard enters the disputed waters and met by Japanese coast guard vessels.

Abe also praised the affirmation of United States President Barack Obama last April during a visit to Tokyo on the inclusion of the Senkakus within the U.S. - Japan treaty on security. 

U.S. - Japan Trade

Speaking on the economic relations between the United States and Japan, Abe called on both Tokyo and Washington to exercise more flexibility in completing an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership that aims to expand and hasten further free trade between the two countries. 

Abe told the Washington Post that negotiations between the world's largest and third largest economies is already "arriving at a final stage."

When asked on the scheduled increase in consumption tax in Japan by October of 2015, Abe is hoping to see a good growth in the Japanese economy. A growth will result in an increase in tax revenues and is dependent on how the economy stands by then. 

Tokyo will increase to 10 percent from 8 percent taxes on consumption by October of next year but will depend on the economic date specifically the results of the revised figures of the Japanese gross domestic product (GDP) to be released this December 8.

In April this year, Japan hiked consumption tax from 5 percent to 8 percent with goals to peg the tax rate to 10 percent in a two year period. The 3 percent increase has slowed down personal spending in the country, a major component in Japan's economic recovery after decades of a lackluster economic performance.

TagsSenkaku Islands, APEC, Asia PAcific Economic Conference