By KEN MORITSUGU and MARI YAMAGUCHI
BEIJING — China and Japan agreed Wednesday to set up talks on often contentious security issues as they seek to improve a relationship riven in recent years by a range of issues, from territorial disputes to the discharge of water from Japan’s tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, on his first trip to China since assuming the post in October, sounded positive after meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, saying the talks were “very candid” and wide-ranging.
“I feel we were able to build a personal relationship that would lead to the future,” he told reporters in the Chinese capital.
Wang agreed to visit Japan next year for a high-level economic dialogue including cooperation on the environment, energy conservation and health and nursing care. Japan announced an easing of visa requirements for Chinese visitors, following China’s recent decision to allow Japanese to enter without a visa.
The two countries also have major differences. Iwaya raised Japan’s concerns about China’s military activity near a group of uninhabited islands that both countries claim, as well as China’s territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea.
Efforts to improve ties are in their early stages following a commitment to do so made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at a meeting last month during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
“Currently China-Japan relations are at a critical period of improvement and development,” Li said at the start of his meeting with Iwaya. “China is willing to work together with Japan to move toward the important direction proposed by the leaders of the two countries.”
Iwaya’s one-day trip came just before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January and the uncertainty his presidency is expected to bring to America’s global relations.
Trump has…
Read the full article here
