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Xi Jinping to attend Osaka G20, says Taro Kono, in China leader's first visit to Japan since 2013
BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Japan in June to attend this year’s summit of the Group of 20 major economies, in what will be his first trip to the nation since coming to power in 2013, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Monday.
“His attendance is scheduled,” Kono told reporters in Beijing after meeting separately with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Kono’s Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
It is also hoped that the visit will be an opportunity for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hold his first meeting with Xi since a summit in Buenos Aires in November.
Kono said he agreed with Wang to work toward the success of the summit, set to be hosted in Osaka, and boost cooperation between the two countries on various global issues.
“To stabilize Japan-China relations in the truest sense, positive action by China in the East China Sea is necessary,” Kono added. A dispute over the Japanese-controlled and uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls Diaoyu, remains a source of tension between the two countries.
At the outset of the meeting, held at the Zhongnanhai government compound, Li had said, “As neighbors, China and Japan should deepen economic cooperation and cultivate third-country markets for the benefit of not only our two countries but also to ensure a stable recovery in the global economy.”
The Japanese minister said he also asked China to lift restrictions on imports of Japanese food that were put in place after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
In November, China removed a ban on rice grown in Niigata Prefecture, more than 200 kilometers away from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and has shown willingness to ease restrictions on other Japanese food proven to be safe based on scientific evaluations.
In a blow to Japan’s fishery industry, the World Trade Organization ruled Thursday that South Korea could maintain its import ban on Japanese seafood, reversing an earlier decision that had called for the prohibition to be lifted.
Kono and Wang are also believed to have discussed the resumption of talks on a joint gas development project in the East China Sea based on a 2008 bilateral accord that has since stalled.
On Sunday, the two co-chaired a high-level economic dialogue aimed at deepening cooperation at a time when global growth is slowing.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/15/national/politics-diplomacy/beijing-taro-kono-chinese-premier-li-keqiang-discuss-possible-xi-visit-japan-g20/