No one-on-one meeting between Chinese navy commander, Japanese MSDF officials: Spokesman

QINGDAO - No one-on-one meeting has been planned between Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Commander Wu Shengli and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) officials during the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), a PLA Navy spokesman said Sunday.

Special: China-Japan Relations

"In view of the wrong words and deeds by the Japanese leaders ... which have substantially hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined bilateral ties, aside from arranged, necessary meetings at the symposium, no one-on-one meeting between Admiral Wu Shengli and MSDF officials has been planned during this year's WPNS," Liang Yang, the spokesman said.

The WPNS is scheduled to be held in eastern Chinese city of Qingdao from April 22 to 23.

Established in 1987, the WPNS is a forum for discussing maritime affairs in the region and the possibility of cooperation among its members.

The WPNS was established as proposed by the United States and its allies in 1987 with the goals to promote pragmatic cooperation between the navies and maritime defense forces of its member countries, strengthen mutual understanding and trust, and jointly safeguard regional maritime security.

It now has 21 member countries, including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia,Canada, Chile, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia,Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, United States and Vietnam. It also has three observers: Bangladesh, India and Mexico. Pakistan is an observer applicant.

After the WPNS conference, a multilateral maritime exercise will be conducted off the coast of Qingdao from April 23 to 24.

The spokesman said the exercise, which is to be held to commemorate the 65th founding anniversary of the PLA navy, is not under the framework of the WPNS.

A total of seven ships, respectively from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Brunei have arrived at the port of Qingdao on Sunday. They will join Chinese naval ships in a multilateral maritime exercise that features maritime rescue operations.

Invitations were sent to both WPNS member nations and non-members,according to Liang.

Japan was not invited to the exercise because of the wrong actions that taken by the Japanese government have seriously harmed the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined the China-Japan bilateral ties, according to the spokesman.

Under the current circumstances, it is not appropriate to invite ships of Japan's Marine Self Defense Forces (MSDF) to attend relevant activity to mark the founding of the Chinese navy, Liang added.