BEIJING, Apr 29: China has dismissed Japan’s claim of UN backing for the extension of its continental shelf as “baseless”.
“The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has not announced its decision concerning the case of the outer limits of Japan’s continental shelf. I don’t know on what grounds did Japan make such a claim,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Liu Weimin said.
He was reacting to reports from Tokyo stating that Japanese government has welcomed the backing of the UN Commission for its claims to the extension of the Continental Shelf to the seabed north of the Okinotori atoll.
The international mainstream views do not support Japan’s claim, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
China insists that according to the international law, the Okinotori atoll shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, Liu said.
The Okinotori atoll, some 1,700 kilometers south of Tokyo, is only about 10 square meters above the sea at the flood-tide.
According to Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or an economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, the news agency report said. (PTI)
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