Kishida-Xi Talks Planned for Sidelines of U.S. Summit Next Week

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:34 JST, November 9, 2023

Japan and China have begun arranging a meeting between their leaders for next week, to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the United States, it has been learned.

A Thursday date has been proposed for the meeting between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping as China is already arranging to meet with the U.S. on Wednesday, the start of the summit. If a Kishida-Xi meeting takes place, it will be the first since last November’s meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bangkok.

The government was to dispatch Takeo Akiba, secretary general of the National Security Secretariat, to Beijing on Friday for final discussions with the Chinese side, according to government sources.

Akiba is scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo.

They are expected to work on the agenda for the planned meeting, which will likely include Beijing’s ban on imports of Japanese marine products over the release of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.