Friday, October 29, 2010
BEIJING (AFP) - – The foreign ministers of China and Japan met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vietnam, China's official Xinhua news agency reported, as the two sides try to calm a diplomatic row.
The talks between China's Yang Jiechi and Japan's Seiji Maehara could pave the way for a meeting between the premiers of the two countries, although there has not yet been any confirmation of such a meeting.
The Chinese foreign ministry declined immediate comment on the Yang-Maehara meeting.
The row, which began seven weeks ago when a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels near a disputed island chain, has put a severe strain on ties between the neighbours, Asia's top two economies.
Japanese authorities arrested the captain of the fishing trawler, sparking outrage in Beijing. The captain was subsequently released, but not before serious damage was done to the key relationship.
Beijing cancelled a series of planned diplomatic meetings, insisting the arrest after the incident in the East China Sea was illegal and invalid.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan met briefly in Brussels during an Asia-Europe meeting on October 4 for their first talks since the incident, but both sides have ramped up the rhetoric since then.
The row has sparked sometimes angry nationalist protests in both countries, with hundreds of Chinese taking to the streets of the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing this week to vent their anger, burning the Japanese flag.
A meeting scheduled for Friday between the economic ministers of Japan, China and South Korea in Hanoi was cancelled, casting doubt on the two-way talks between the leaders of Asia's biggest powers.
But a Japanese official told AFP on Thursday that the meeting of the foreign ministers could be "one step in creating a direction towards a summit between the Japanese and Chinese prime ministers".
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