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China maintains close contacts with RF on incident in Sea of Japan – FM

The incident occurred on July 16 when Russian border guards found a fishing boat under the flag of China that refused to reply to requirements for stopping

BEIJING, July 21 (Itar-Tass) — China maintains close contacts with Russia on an incident in the Sea of Japan when Russian border guards shelled a Chinese fishing boat, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Saturday.

China “will do everything possible to resolve this incident very soon. We hope that due to friendly relations both parties will be able to settle it”, the spokesman said.

At present, China and Russia are holding consultations to create an immediate preliminary warning system in order to avoid such incidents that can have an impact on friendly relations between both states, Hong said.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Chong Quan said on Thursday, July 19, that Beijing “expressed dissatisfaction with Russia’s severe actions to make it to carry out law, use force and detain Chinese fishermen”.

The incident occurred on July 16 when Russian border guards found a fishing boat under the flag of China that refused to reply to requirements for stopping. The boat is trying to go away within three hours. A border guard ship made warning shots, but the boat did not stop. In order to detain it border guards had to shoot to kill because the boat’s crew resisted when an inspection group tried to go aboard the boat. Border guards found 22,500 tonnes of squid, which was illegally caught in Russian waters. After the inspection the poachers’ boat was convoyed to the port of Nakhodka to conduct an investigation.

On July 15, Russian border guards detained one more Chinese fishing boat for illegal fishing.