Encouraging signs are emerging along the path to improved relations between the region's two key powers, China and Japan. Given the notable chill overhanging relations in the past few years, no one is breaking out the Champagne just yet but there is still plenty of ground for optimism.
With the world focused on the Middle East and North Korea, leaders in both countries seem to sense a need to move things along. President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi are expected to meet later this month in St Petersburg for the Russian city's 300th anniversary celebrations and afterwards on the fringes of the G8 summit in France. A high-level delegation from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is due in Beijing this week, for a mission that is expected to seal the forthcoming meetings. Reports are now emerging in Tokyo that a full state visit to Beijing can be expected later in the summer.
There is no better time. The current state of international relations is already uncertain enough without simmering Sino-Japanese tensions further complicating the mix. Any hopes, meanwhile, of solving the problems created by North Korea's nuclear ambitions can only be boosted by a Sino-Japanese relationship with an emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy rather than mistrust.
The diplomacy surrounding North Korea is growing more intense by the week. Both South Korea and Japan are staging top-level missions to Washington this week. As a neighbouring traditional ally of Pyongyang and one keen on wider engagement, China has shown it has its own special role to play in the broadening efforts, most notably by hosting the recent exploratory talks between the North and the US in Beijing. As the diplomacy continues, China's role can only be enhanced by the ability to deal with involved nations together and individually - a cause solid Sino-Japanese communication can only serve.
Strategically, too, there are wider interests. The region has a stake in China, as its emerging power, and Japan, as its established power, seeking ways to develop links. Bilaterally, there are the widening economic ties that reflect the rest of the region's engagement with China.
If the above aspects speak to the future, then it is unfortunate to note that it is the past that has stiffened those ties in recent years. Prime Minister Koizumi's three trips to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine have brought strong condemnation from China. As understandable as that anger may be, wallowing in the rhetoric of old suspicions is not going to serve the immediate future. As both sides start to explore deeper links, both should seek to move on, agreeing if need be to avoid public references to conflicts ground in last century. It is time for rational - rather than emotional - leadership.
