Japan PM Abe: Relations with China back on 'normal track'

TOKYO (Reuters/AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed confidence in improving ties with China and said the countries’ relationship had returned to a “normal track,” in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Abe, who is expected to visit China at the end of October, was also quoted as saying he hoped to invite President Xi Jinping to Japan in the future.

His comments came amid intensifying US trade pressure on Beijing and Tokyo that has raised concerns about protectionism and its impact on the global economy.

“Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan in May and the Japan-China relationship has completely returned to a normal track,” Abe told the Sankei newspaper.

Japan’s finance minister expressed similar optimism on Friday, saying the current round of financial dialogue with China was “extremely good”, and that both sides agreed to maintain cooperation in macroeconomic policies and measures.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs as a key part of his economic message, singling out the U.S. auto sector trade deficit with Germany and Japan.

In his interview, Abe said he shared with Trump the larger goal of expanding trade and investment that would benefit both countries, but reiterated that he would not prioritize friendship over national interests in any discussions over trade.

Summit with Kim Abe said any summit he holds with North Korea's Kim Jong Un must tackle abducted citizens, an issue that has bedeviled relations between the two countries for decades.

North Korea kidnapped scores of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to help Pyongyang train its spies, a sore point that Tokyo says has never been adequately addressed.

''In the end, I have to meet Chairman Kim Jong Un,'' Abe told the Sankei Shimbun daily in an interview published on Sunday, adding he wished to ''break mutual distrust'' between the two countries.

But he added: ''As long as we hold a meeting, the meeting must contribute to the resolution of the abduction issue''.

Tokyo and Pyongyang have long had tense relations, from historical grievances of Japan's wartime brutalities on the Korean peninsula to Pyongyang's regular saber rattling, including recent missile tests last year that sent rockets heading towards Japan.

Recent months have seen a remarkable diplomatic detente on the Korean peninsula with Kim holding summits with both US President Donald Trump and South Korea's leader Moon Jae-in.