Foreign and Military Affairs

Japan's plans for atoll not to change its legal status

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-08 00:38

BEIJING: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Thursday that Japan's move to build facilities on the Okinotori atoll will not change its legal status, as Japan is seeking vast economic interests at the nearby southern Pacific.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLS), and based on the natural and geographic situation of the Okinotori atoll, neither exclusive economic zones nor continental shelves should be claimed on it, Spokesperson Jiang Yu told a regular press briefing.

Japan has asked the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to recognize the extended area around the so-called "Okinotori island," 1,740 km south of Tokyo, as its continental shelf, which would enable it to claim a vast surrounding area as an exclusive economic zone.

According to Article 121 of the UNCLS, rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or an economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

According to Japanese media report, the Japanese government plans to build a port and conduct mineral explorations on the atoll in 2010.

"Building facilities on it would not change the atoll's legal status," Jiang said.

Such a bid did not conform to the international laws of the sea and was against the interests of the international community, she said.