Japan, China eye better relations
Abe slides in polls amid scandals, raising doubts about third term
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart have pledged to improve ties between their nations and affirmed a commitment to stick with UN resolutions aimed at forcing North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.
Kono met the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi, in Tokyo on Sunday, having made his own official visit to Beijing earlier this year.
Wang is the first Chinese foreign minister to visit Japan in a bilateral context in the nine years since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to reset the sometimes fraught relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“Through mutual visits between our two leaders we agreed to pursue wide-reaching cooperation and improved ties,” Kono said after Sunday’s meeting.
Economic ties between Japan and China are close, led by corporate investment. The neighbors remain at odds, however, over China’s growing military presence in the South China Sea, through which much of the region’s sea-borne trade sails, and a dispute over ownership of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Tokyo and the Diaoyu in Beijing.
Wang said his visit was in response to Japan’s positive attitude towards China.
“Since last year Japan has, in relations with China, displayed a positive message and friendly attitude,” he said.
The talks came ahead of a summit between the two Koreas this month and a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jon Un and US President Donald Trump. The US-North Korea talks are aimed at ending a stand-off over Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
“To establish a complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization of North Korea we agreed to continue to fully implement all relevant UN resolutions and to work closely together,” Kono said.
Wang, who spent eight years in Japan as a diplomat, including three as China’s ambassador, is scheduled to hold further talks with Kono and other Japanese Cabinet ministers on Monday.
On Tuesday, Japanese Self Defense Force officers will meet counterparts from China’s People’s Liberation Army at a reception hosted by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in an effort to build trust between the military rivals.
Meanwhile, support for Abe, who is plagued by accusations of cronyism and cover-ups, fell to 26.7% in a survey by private broadcaster Nippon TV released on Sunday, the lowest since he took office in December 2012.
Abe’s sliding ratings are raising doubts over whether he can win a third three-year term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader in a September vote he needs to win to stay in office or whether he might even resign before the party election.
Another survey released on Sunday by Kyodo News put Abe’s support at 37%, down 5.4 percentage points.
The polls come ahead of Abe’s summit this week with Trump, where he faces a tough agenda including North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat and sticky trade issues.
Former cabinet minister Shigeru Ishiba, who has made clear he wants to challenge Abe for the top post, topped the list of politicians whom respondents to the Kyodo survey saw as best suited to become the next premier, with 26.6%.
Popular young LDP lawmaker Shinjiro Koizumi, son of ex-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, ranked second with 25.2%, followed by Abe in third place with 18.3%.
Former premier Koizumi told reporters on Saturday, he thought it would be difficult for Abe to win a third term as LDP leader.
“He has lost trust and whatever he says sounds like an excuse,” he told reporters.