Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada warned his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi at a meeting in Tokyo on January 17 that Tokyo will take action if Beijing starts gas production in a disputed field in the East China Sea. The warning comes despite an agreement between the two countries to resolve the dispute by jointly developing gas fields.1 The fields are expected to hold 92 million barrels of oil equivalent, and there could also be larger hidden reserves.

• 1. ‘Japan warns China over disputed oil and gas reserves’, Radio Australia News, January 18, 2010 at http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201001/2794182.htm?desktop