Japan, China agree to speed up preparations for Xi visit

August 1, 2019

Bangkok--Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, agreed on Thursday to accelerate preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned visit to Japan as a state guest next spring.

At their meeting in Bangkok, Kono and Wang confirmed that the two countries will continue high-level dialogue by utilizing opportunities such as a three-way summit among Japan, China and South Korea planned to be held by the end of the year and a meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in the central Japan city of Nagoya in November.

Wang told Kono that he hopes that relations between Japan and China will be right, healthy and stable.

Kono said the two countries sent out a unified message at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June about the world economy, trade and global issues. Japan and China successfully exhibited how they will make contributions together to address challenges in the world, Kono said.

The Japanese minister asked for Beijing's actions to address repeated intrusions by Chinese government ships into Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, gas field development in the East China Sea and the detention of Japanese people in China.

Wang reiterated China's position over the islands, but stopped short of touching on other issues.

Kono also sought the withdrawal of Beijing's import controls on Japanese foods. Jiji Press