Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Forum (APEC) in Bangkok, the Japanese ministry spokesman said on Monday.
“Prime Minister Kishida will hold a Sino-Japan summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the occasion of the APEC summit on November 17,” Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
The two leaders have never met in person. They spoke on the phone in October 2021, shortly after Mr. Kishida came to power in Japan.
The last summit between the leaders of the two countries took place in December 2019 when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Mr. Xi in Beijing.
China and Japan in September celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic ties, but in a rather chilled atmosphere due to many points of tension, particularly Sino-US tensions over Taiwan, while Tokyo is a staunch Washington ally.
China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies respectively, are important trading partners, but their relationship has deteriorated significantly in recent years as Beijing shows growing ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan regularly complains about Chinese maritime activity around the Senkaku Islands, administered by Tokyo but dubbed Diaoyu by Beijing.
“There are still many questions and concerns between China and Japan, as well as many opportunities,” Matsuno said Monday.
“It is necessary to build constructive and stable Japan-China relations through the efforts of both sides (…) while affirming what needs to be affirmed and calling on (China) to act responsibly,” he added.