Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers will meet on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting to discuss China-Japan relations and regional issues in Northeast Asia, official sources said today.

 

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman's Office, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing will hold bilateral consultations with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso in Kuala Lumpur during the seventh foreign ministers' meeting between the ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) from July 26 to 28.

 

"They will discuss China-Japan relations and regional issues, including the Northeast Asian situation," sources with the Foreign Ministry said.

 

Sino-Japanese relations have been soured by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including 14 class-A criminals in WWII, are honored.

 

The leaders of the two countries halted exchange visits after Koizumi's homage to the war shrine soon after he took office in 2001.

 

This will be Li's second meeting with Aso since Aso became Japan's foreign minister last year.

 

Their first meeting was held in Qatar on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue conference in May.

 

The meeting between Li and Aso is expected to take place Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting, sources said.

 

The upcoming meeting was just decided by Monday, with the help of various channels, sources said.

 

"The arrangement of the meeting spells out the message that China and Japan hope to keep contacts and mend ties," Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert, told Xinhua News Agency Tuesday.

 

China and Japan have had a number of frequent wrangles beyond Japanese leader's Yasukuni Shrine visits, including disputes over the East China Sea gas and oil resources.

 

China and Japan held the sixth round of the East China Sea talks in Beijing in early July, but great differences still remain.

 

The two countries also met for security talks last Friday, agreeing on increased defense exchanges.

 

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua yesterday, the ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula would be a focal point of the impending ASEAN foreign ministers meeting.

 

The ASEAN chief said ASEAN is committed to a peaceful Korean Peninsula and wish the six parties to come together to find a solution.

 

Almost all major players in the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue have confirmed their participation in the meetings in Kuala Lumpur.

 

"Diplomatic efforts are being made to hold foreign ministers' talks of the six countries on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)," said Chun Young-woo, South Korea's top envoy to the six-party talks.

 

The six-party talks remained stalled since the last round of meeting was held in Beijing last November.

 

The last round of talks, involving China, the US, Russia, Japan, South and North Korea, ended up with a Chairman's Statement, in which the parties concerned agreed to resume the talks as soon as possible.

 

"I think China is certainly showing evidence of that (becoming a responsible stakeholder). I thought the North Korea example was a good one," Rice said ahead of her departure for the ASEAN meetings.

 

The ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2006)