Japan, China to set up contact system to avoid sea, air clashes

Japan and China have largely agreed on how to implement a maritime and aerial communication mechanism aimed at averting unintended clashes in and above the East China Sea, despite a long-running territorial row over a group of small islands in the area, sources close to bilateral ties said Wednesday.The mechanism, a sort of hotline between defense officials of the two countries, is expected to be put into practice in the near future after a decade of negotiations.The deal was struck during a two-day meeting of senior officials in Shanghai, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymi…READ FULL ARTICLE