Japan and China agreed Sunday to resume reciprocal visits by their leaders, underscoring that Asia’s two biggest economies are eager to mend ties in the ye
BEIJING – Japan and China agreed Sunday to resume reciprocal visits by their leaders, underscoring that Asia’s two biggest economies are eager to mend ties in the year marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of a bilateral friendship treaty.
During 2½ hours of talks between Foreign Minister Kono Taro and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing, the two confirmed the importance of mutual visits by their leaders as part of a full-fledged push to improve Sino-Japanese relations, a Japanese government official said.
Kono and Wang also agreed to hold as soon as possible a trilateral summit that also includes South Korea, which Tokyo had wanted to host last year, the Japanese official said. The summit would bring Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Japan for the first time since he took office in 2013.
“We want to improve overall (bilateral) ties this year,” Kono, the first Japanese foreign minister to visit China in about two years, said at the outset of the meeting open to the media.
Kono, who arrived on Saturday, noted the importance of this year as Tokyo and Beijing mark the 40th anniversary of the peace and friendship treaty.
Wang responded by noting that China welcomes Japan’s “strong determination” to improve relations.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping have yet to make official visits to their respective countries. This has been due, in part, to the dispute over the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known in China as the Diaoyu Islands. The tiny islets are administered by Tokyo, but also claimed by Beijing and Taipei, which calls them Tiaoyutai.
In addition, North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear ambitions were on the agenda at the meeting, with Tokyo and Beijing agreeing to continue working together toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese official said.
