Japanese PM Kishida and China's Xi Jinping arranging talks on sidelines of APEC meeting in US on 16 Nov

Japan and China’s bilateral times have remained strained following the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. Amid this there are reports of a possible meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month. A report by The Japan Times quoted a source close to bilateral relations saying that Kishida and Xi are arranging talks on November 16 on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific leaders gathering. Japan’s top national security adviser Takeo Akiba is expected to lay the groundwork for the summit during his talks with senior Chinese officials in Beijing. The sources further said the meeting, if realized, will take place on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders’ meeting in San Francisco from November 15 to 17 and would be the first since November last year in Thailand. The Japanese government has been trying to resume high-level talks with China since the bilateral ties soured following Beijing’s formal arrest of a Japanese business for alleged espionage earlier in 2023. The relations between the two Asian powers also got affected with the repeated entries by Chinese coast guard vessels into waters near the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The report further quoted the sources saying that Akiba, secretary-general of the National Security Secretariat, who last visited China in August 2022, is expected to seek a science-based dialogue on the Fukushima water release in his meetings with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and others. China has strongly opposed the discharges into the Pacific Ocean, labeling the water “nuclear-contaminated” and imposed a complete ban on seafood imports from Japan soon after the first release from the Fukushima plant in late August this year.