Welcome thaw in Sino-Japan ties, despite ongoing friction

Television images of an awkward handshake and frosty body language did not portray a typical start to a bilateral summit at an important moment in the deeply troubled relationship between China and Japan. We don't know if appearances thawed when President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began their talks behind closed doors. But the two Asian giants need to seize the opening created by the meeting to reduce tensions and make a fresh start.

The mere fact that the leaders of the world's second- and third-biggest economies have met for the first time in two years - if only for 25 minutes - not only raises hopes of containing escalating tensions; it is a necessary and significant first step towards a political reconciliation that paves the way for normalisation of a key relationship for global security.

Relations between the two governments have almost frozen. The risk of armed conflict could not be ruled out as ties plumbed new lows over disputed claims to the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japan. And Abe has personally infuriated China by visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine to war dead, including convicted class-A war criminals.

Before this week's meeting between Xi and Abe, officials from both sides forged a four-point consensus that acknowledges "different views" on the territorial dispute over the islands and calls for adherence by both sides to past agreements. It is reassuring that the two leaders at least agreed to establish a crisis-management system such as a hotline so that any incident in waters around the disputed islands such as a collision does not escalate into conflict.

Despite the consensus between officials, it seems that Xi only agreed to the meeting at the last minute. Indeed Chinese media speculated that the summit would not happen. This reflects the absence of an undertaking by Abe to stay away from the shrine as prime minister, and that the wording over the islands can be seen as weak in order to accommodate Japan.

The two sides therefore have difficult issues to work through. The bilateral summit was a symbolic start, however awkward, on implementing the agreement between officials to gradually resume political, diplomatic and security dialogue. For Xi it amounts to a calculated risk. Nationalistic sentiment in China remains very strong. But it is a risk worth taking. As Abe said yesterday, the two countries need one another and their relationship matters to the rest of the world.