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Japan FM in China for talks on economic crisis, NKorea
2009-02-28
BEIJING (AFP) - Japan's foreign minister arrived in China Saturday for a two-day visit that will see the two sides discuss the economic crisis and North Korea, amid a flare-up in tensions over a territorial dispute. Hirofumi Nakasone was due to raise the issues with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi shortly after his arrival in Beijing, a Japanese foreign ministry official said in Tokyo. "The two ministers are to explain how to cope with the crisis in each country," said the official, who declined to be named. "During discussions on the region, the North Korean issue will (also) be on the agenda." The world's second and third biggest economies are grappling with the global slowdown, with Japan posting a record fall in industrial output in January and China recently announcing that 20 million rural migrants were out of work. On the diplomatic front, Japan and China are both part of a six-nation forum aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear programmes, but negotiations have repeatedly stalled. Pyongyang has also stated its intention to launch a satellite soon, a move that Japan and the United States believe could actually be a long-range missile test for a weapon with the potential to hit Alaska. China, one of North Korea's closest allies and the host of the six-party talks, has made little comment on the subject, which has dominated regional security concerns in recent weeks. Another issue that Nakasone, who is scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday, will discuss while in China is a long-running territorial dispute between the two powers over energy-rich waters in the East China Sea. "We are... arranging discussions on the issues of the Senkaku islands and gas fields in the East China Sea," the Japanese official said. The archipelago, known in China as the Diaoyu islands, has long been a bone of contention between the neighbours, both of whom claim rights to lucrative undersea gas fields in the area. Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday fuelled the row over the issue when he said Tokyo would ask the United States to help it defend the disputed island chain. China reacted angrily, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying Beijing had lodged "stern representations" with Japan over the comments. On potential issues of cooperation, the Japanese official said Nakasone and Yang could agree to enter negotiations for the conclusion of a treaty for bilateral cooperation in the criminal and judicial fields. Part of the treaty would be aimed at enabling Chinese citizens imprisoned in Japan to serve their prison terms in China, and vice versa, Japanese media reported. Nakasone was due to meet Yang late on Saturday afternoon. Nakasone's visit comes as relations between the Asian giants have improved significantly after being overshadowed for a long time by Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China before and during World War II. China cut high-level contacts with Japan during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which venerates war criminals who invaded China, among 2.5 million Japanese war dead. Japan's previous prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who quit in September last year, worked hard to improve ties with China.
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