Kishida to Meet with Chinese Pres. Xi on Thurs.

Tokyo, Nov. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bangkok on Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Monday.

It will be the first face-to-face meeting between Japanese and Chinese top leaders in about three years since December 2019 and the first since Kishida took office in October 2021.

The meeting will come ahead of a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in the Thai capital from Friday.

"Both of us need to make efforts to build constructive and stable Japan-China relations in which the two sides claim what should be claimed and seek responsible actions from each other while working together to tackle common challenges," Matsuno, Japan's top government spokesman, told a press conference. "We hope the upcoming (Japan-China summit) talks will help to move such efforts forward."

In September, Japan and China marked 50 years since the normalization of their diplomatic ties. Kishida and Xi, in their respective congratulatory messages to each other on the occasion, expressed their willingness to aim for building new-era bilateral relations.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]