Senior Japanese and Chinese officials to meet to discuss Abe and Xi talks
Meeting between the leaders could come at G20 summit in Hamburg in July and would focus on North Korea threat, sources say
Chinese and Japanese senior foreign affairs officials would meet in Tokyo this week, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Monday, with an eye to realising talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July.
Behind the move is Tokyo’s desire to go hand-in-hand with Beijing in stopping North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, which it believes has reached “a new level of threat,” diplomatic sources told Kyodo.
Kong Xuanyou, China’s assistant foreign minister who was considered a major candidate to be the next ambassador to Japan, visits Japan from Monday to Wednesday and would meet Takeo Akiba, deputy foreign minister for political affairs, the ministry said.
The two sides will discuss how to steer strained bilateral relations and a possible meeting between Xi and Abe on the margins of a summit of Group of 20 major economies in Hamburg, Germany on July 7-8.
Kong and Akiba are also seen as exchanging views on when to convene a trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea, which Tokyo is scheduled to chair, and a possible visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
