China, Japan coast guards patrol disputed East China Sea waters

Reuters
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A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of one of the disputed islands in the East China Sea

BEIJING/Tokyo (Reuters) - The China Coast Guard said on Friday it patrolled the "territorial waters" of Diaoyu Islands, also known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, in the East China Sea.

Japan Coast Guard said in a separate bulletin that its patrol boats had asked four Chinese coast guard vessels to leave "our territorial waters".

It marked the tenth such instance by Chinese vessels this year, Japan Coast Guard said.

The waters around the islands are disputed and claimed by both China and Japan. The two sides have faced off in the waters, deploying patrol boats and urging the other to leave the area.

Friday's face-off came after the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held talks at the White House on Thursday to push back on Beijing's stepped-up pressure on Manila in the disputed South China Sea.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill)