China cool on Abe’s request for leaders summit
Print Edition
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday he wants to hold a summit with China at the APEC leaders meeting in Beijing in November to improve relations, but the statement drew a cool response from China.
Abe has been in office since late 2012 and has yet to meet Chinese leaders, despite worsening ties over disputed islands in the East China Sea and Abe’s visits to a Tokyo war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
“It is a great pity we have not been able to have a leaders’ summit,” Abe told a parliamentary committee.
“We need to return to the basics of a strategic relationship of mutual respect. I would like to have a summit in Beijing this November at the time of the APEC meeting,” he said, referring to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum annual summit.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it had stated its view on the issue many times. Japan “should take real steps and work hard to banish the political obstacles that affect the development of bilateral ties,” it said.
Abe also touched on the economic ties between the two nations, saying their relationship was unbreakable.
“While recognizing that even if our ties are strained, they cannot be broken. For this very reason we need to maintain a relationship that keeps things under control,” he said.
Japan has been locked in a territorial dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Tensions rose after Abe’s December visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where top war criminals are honored along with war dead, infuriated China and even drew criticism from the United States.
In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun yesterday, Abe refused to rule out another visit to the shrine.
“I hope to maintain my feeling of respect to honor those who gave their lives for the nation, but I would rather not say whether or not I will visit Yasukuni,” he was quoted as saying.
Abe also brushed off reports that Masahiko Komura, a top ruling party official, had told China he would not revisit the shrine. “That was his thought. I don’t know about it,” he said.
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