Japan-China relations boosted with expanded delegation for spring economic talks
- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is sending six members of his cabinet to high-level economic talks in Beijing
- Meeting will also prepare the groundwork for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to Japan since coming to power in 2013
Six Japanese ministers will attend high-level economic talks in Beijing planned for mid-April, underscoring a recent improvement in relations between the two countries.
It is a larger delegation than last year, when four members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet attended the so-called high-level economic dialogue in Tokyo.
Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who will head the delegation, plans to meet his counterpart Wang Yi as well as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, laying the groundwork for President Xi Jinping to make his first visit to Japan since coming to power in 2013.
“This will be an opportunity to ramp up discussions on a wide range of topics before President Xi visits for the Group of 20 summit that will be held in Osaka in June,” a Japanese government official said.
With Japan slated to begin negotiations on a trade deal with the United States, and with China locked in a tariff war with Washington, trade issues are expected to be a hot issue during the bilateral talks in Beijing.
Also representing Japan will be industry minister Hiroshige Seko, farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa, transport minister Keiichi Ishii, environment minister Yoshiaki Harada, and regulatory reform minister Satsuki Katayama, according to the official.
The two countries have held economic talks on and off since 2007, with the upcoming round to be the fifth.
There was an eight-year hiatus between the third and fourth meetings, due to frayed relations between the two countries over disputed islands in the East China Sea. In 2012 Japan placed the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls Diaoyu, under state control.
