China, Japan to hold in-person foreign ministerial talks on sidelines of Asean meeting in Cambodia next week: sources

Meeting will be first face-to-face dialogue of foreign ministers from Japan and China since November 2020 amid heightening tensions between countries

Top Japanese diplomat expected to air concerns over repeated intrusions by Chinese coastguard ships into Japanese waters near disputed Diaoyu Islands

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Published: 9:16am, 31 Jul 2022Updated: 2:39pm, 31 Jul 2022

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi are planning to hold in-person talks on Thursday on the sidelines of a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meetings in Cambodia, government sources said on Saturday.

The top Japanese diplomat is expected to air concerns over repeated intrusions by Chinese coastguard ships into Japanese waters around the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands, as well as China’s intensifying military activities near Japanese waters.

The uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are called Diaoyu by China.

It will be the first face-to-face dialogue of foreign ministers of Japan and China since November 2020 amid heightening tensions between the two countries ahead of the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of bilateral ties on September 29.

Hayashi is expected to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call on China to take responsible action, according to the sources. China has close ties with and has refrained from condemning Moscow.

He also plans to stress the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the necessity of international cooperation toward the denuclearisation of North Korea, they said.