Tokyo, Feb 12 : Japan Coast Guard (JCG) on Wednesday confirmed that a Chinese buoy that was installed in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is no longer there. The buoy had been floating in the area since July 2023, even though the Japanese government had demanded that China remove it and issued warnings about the buoy to vessels navigating in the area.

On Tuesday, the coast guard officials had said that the buoy was spotted in the waters northwest of Okinawa Prefecture's Senkaku Islands, which are located in southern Japan.

However, the situation in the waters around the Senkaku remains tense, with Chinese Coast Guard vessels spotted near the uninhabited Islands for a record 353 days last year. On Wednesday, the Japan Coast Guard said four Chinese government vessels had briefly entered Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku, reported the Japan Times.

The dispute over the Senkaku Islands between Japan, China, and Taiwan is several decades old. The group of tiny, uninhabited islets and rocks in the East China Sea is administered by Japan. It is referred to as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, the Diaoyu Islands in China, and the Diaoyutai Islands in Taiwan.

The islands have strategic significance as it is close to important shipping lanes, offers rich fishing grounds and has the potential existence of oil reserves. It has also become a proxy battlefield in the growing Sino-US tussle for influence in the Indo-Pacific. Japan remains a key ally of the US.

Japan has consistently maintained that there has never been any agreement with China to "shelve" issues regarding the Senkaku Islands.

"The assertion that such an agreement exists directly contradicts China's own actions to change the status quo through force or coercion. In 1992, China enacted the Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, explicitly delineating its claim over the islands as part of Chinese territory. Since 2008, China has been sending government ships to the waters off the Senkaku Islands, and has repeatedly made incursions into Japanese territorial waters," maintains the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

In recent times, relations between China and Japan have deteriorated over territorial disputes over Senkaku Islands. However, the removal of the contentious buoy could be a possible hint of some improvement in bilateral relations.

Last year, Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi visited Beijing and met his counterpart Wang Yi and other Chinese officials. Both nations discussed a range of issues. Japanese media reports that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has plans to visit China later this year.

The current dispensation in Japan wants to deepen its relationship and build trust with China. For China, it is important to mend ways with Japan to counterbalance the US and its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

/IANS