China and Japan to Hold Summit in San Francisco with the US... Reaffirm Strategic Mutual Benefit

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on the 16th (local time) that they will hold a summit meeting in San Francisco, USA.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to Kyodo News and Japan's public broadcaster NHK, the China-Japan summit will be held on the morning of the 17th (Japan time).

This is the first face-to-face meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders in one year since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 17 last year.

President Xi and Prime Minister Kishida are attending the APEC summit, which opened on the 15th in San Francisco, USA.

The main agenda items expected to be discussed at the meeting include the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, maritime activities near the Senkaku Islands (Chinese name Diaoyu Islands), over which the two countries have territorial disputes, and the Taiwan issue.

At this meeting, Prime Minister Kishida is expected to demand that China lift its ban on imports of Japanese seafood, which was imposed in response to the contaminated water discharge. However, since China has strongly opposed the discharge, referring to the contaminated water as "nuclear contaminated water," it seems unlikely that President Xi Jinping will accept this demand.

Japanese media have reported that the China-Japan summit is expected to reaffirm the "strategic mutual benefit relationship" emphasizing cooperation between the two countries. The strategic mutual benefit relationship refers to the agreement reached during a summit between former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former Chinese President Hu Jintao during Abe's visit to China in 2006. The two countries also issued a joint statement on the strategic mutual benefit relationship in 2008. The statement shared the recognition that both countries have significant influence and responsibility for peace, stability, and development not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also globally, and that long-term cooperation for peace and friendship is the only option for both sides.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.