![“[China] will be missing a great meeting," said IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday in Tokyo. Photo: EPA](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/2012/10/11/lagardech.jpg?itok=kBlLvCC_)
China will “lose out” by not sending its top two finance officials to important global economic meetings in Japan this week, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.
Lagarde called on Beijing and Tokyo – embroiled in a heated dispute over an East China Sea island chain – to settle their row quickly, adding that “countries in this region are very important for the global economy”.
“We have a lot of substantive issues to discuss, great debates, great seminars organised. I think they lose out by not attending the meeting,” she said of China’s finance minister and central bank chief who are both absent.
China has not given official reasons for the no-shows at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said: “The arrangement of the delegation for the meeting was completely appropriate.”
Yang made the brief comment in response to a reporter’s question during a joint press appearance in Beijing with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle after the two held talks on their bilateral relations. Yang gave no further comment on the issue.
The pull-outs come amid simmering tensions over Japanese-controlled islets and as world leaders look to China to help reinvigorate faltering global growth amid fears of a worldwide slowdown.