Japan To Seek Top-Level Summit With China By Year-End

Japan will seek a meeting between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping by the end of the year, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told BS-TBS on Tuesday.

• The authorities are considering September 29 (the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations) and November (G20 summit in Indonesia) as potential occasions for online or in-person bilateral talks.
• The leaders of Asia's two largest economies have not spoken directly since a phone call in October 2021, while the geopolitical rivalry between Tokyo and Beijing has only intensified since then.
• A few weeks ago, China held military drills around Taiwan, which resulted in the test-firing of ballistic missiles over the self-ruled island and into the waters within Japan's EEZ. Meanwhile, Tokyo resumed combined exercises with the U.S. and South Korea.
• The longer-term policy agenda of the Kishida administration also revolves around the recognition of the increasingly assertive China as a significant challenge, with Tokyo boosting efforts to bolster its military capabilities and economic security.
• However, the two nations have kept the diplomatic channels open, as Japan's national security adviser spoke with China's Foreign Minister some two weeks ago, while China's President and Prime Minister sent their "messages of sympathy" to Kishida after he contracted COVID-19.