Leaders of China and Japan expected to meet for talks within hours in Seoul
Staff are busy setting up the conference room in the Shilla Hotel, where the Chinese delegation is staying
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are expected meet this evening for talks after the trilateral summit in Seoul.
Staff are busy setting up the conference room in the Shilla Hotel, where the Chinese delegation is staying.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a 45-minutes discussion with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida this morning at the Hilton Hotel, after which both sides remained tight-lipped about the possibility of a one-on-one discussion between Li and Abe.
Tensions between China and Japan have increased in recent years, fuelled by disagreements over atonement for Tokyo’s war-era actions and sovereignty disputes in the East China Sea.
“We discussed how to improve Sino-Japanese relations,” Wang told reporters after talks with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, which lasted about one hour.
Wang told reporters the Li-Abe meeting had not yet been confirmed, whereas the Japanese side said the meeting was “under adjustment”.
Yuki Tatsumi, senior associate of the East Asia Programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said the leaders’ meeting was unlikely to produce any significant agreement.
Abe and China’s president, Xi Jinping, met at least year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, Tatsumi added.
“China wants to focus on the East China Sea" but Japan would like to broaden the agenda to include Beijing's actions in the South China "The focus of the discussion will be tension-reduction, [and] managing the risk of miscalculation.”
Japanese officials said Abe would say that China’s island-building activities in the disputed South China Sea are “unilateral attempts to change the status quo,” and urge China to respect freedom of navigation and international rules.
Additional reporting by Kyodo
