(VOVworld) – The Japanese Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest this week of 3 Chinese patrol vessels entering disputed waters near the islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

The group of disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China at the centre of a diplomatic row (Photo: Reuters)

Junichi Ihara, of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Office, voiced Japan’s protest in a phone call to a senior Chinese diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.

According to a Japanese government source, the incident occurred right after leaders of the two countries discussed ways to prevent a crisis related to the islands. This was China’s first incursion in the disputed area since a meeting between Chinese President Ji Xinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October but the 28^th incursion this year.