Foreign ministers hold formal talks as China, Japan try to ease tension
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THE foreign ministers of China and Japan held their first formal talks in more than two years yesterday, a day after the Asian powers agreed to reduce tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the capital city of Beijing.
The meeting, the first at such a level since September 2012, just before ties soured over an escalating territorial dispute, came after the two countries agreed on a four-point accord designed to improve their relationship.
Wang called the agreement “a major step” in talks with Kishida, Xinhua news agency reported.
Kishida, meanwhile, said the talks were meaningful.
“This created an important momentum to shift gears to bring Japan-China relations back to a normal track,” he said in remarks shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK.
Friday’s agreement was widely seen as setting the stage for a summit between the two leaders on the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in Beijing, though no official announcement has been made.
The neighbors have not held a summit since December 2011 when then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited Beijing.
Wang and Kishida held informal talks in August on the sidelines of a forum in Myanmar, and during the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to reporters, welcomed the Asian powers’ Friday deal.
“We think any steps the two countries can take to improve the relationship and reduce the tensions are helpful not just to those two countries, but to the region,” he said.
Relations between the world’s second- and third-largest economies have plunged in the face of rows over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Visits by Japanese politicians including Abe to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, are another issue, and the statements said they will make efforts to “overcome political difficulties” rooted in historical issues.
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