On Tuesday, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in mid-November.
The two leaders are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Peru Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for November 15-16. This will mark their first face-to-face encounter.
Japan seeks to maintain a “constructive and stable relationship” with China, aiming to expand high-level dialogues with world leaders, foreign ministers, and senior national security officials.
Notably, Japan is expected to push for Xi’s visit next year to participate in the trilateral Japan-China-South Korea. If it occurs, this would be his first visit to Japan since the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019.
Several pressing issues loom over Japan-China relations. Ishiba is expected to raise the resumption of Chinese imports of Japanese seafood. China imposed a blanket ban on Japanese seafood following the release of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last year. In September, the two nations agreed to gradually resume seafood imports following China’s participation in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation into the treated water release.
Ishiba is also expected to voice concerns about Chinese military activities near Japan. In August, a Chinese military reconnaissance aircraft violated Japanese airspace for the first time, and Ishiba is likely to call for measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
According to Nikkei, Japan will urge China to act responsibly as a significant power and refrain from attempts to alter the status quo in the East and South China Seas. Discussions may also include North Korea’s reported dispatch of troops to Russia.
Moreover, Japan is expected to demand enhanced protection for its nationals and the immediate release of detained Japanese citizens following the tragic stabbing death of a child attending a Japanese school in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
Japan and China plan to promote cooperation based on a “mutually beneficial relationship founded on common strategic interests” across various fields, such as the economy. This phrase, introduced by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, proposed in 2006, and included in the 2008 Japan-China Joint Statement, has been a cornerstone of bilateral diplomacy.
Although this expression was suspended due to deteriorating relations, it was revived last November during a summit between then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Xi in the United States, marking its first use in six years. At that time, the two leaders declared a “new era of Japan-China relations,” emphasizing their commitment to pursuing cooperation as Asian neighbors and preventing accidental conflicts.
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