Beijing, May 23 (AHN) The Japanese trade minister Ryosei Akazawa said on Saturday that he and his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao had a brief exchange on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Suzhou, eastern China, local media reported.

This exchange marks the first ministerial contact between the two nations since their latest diplomatic dispute flared up last year.

The ties between China and Japan deteriorated since last November when Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese Prime Minister, suggested in parliament that in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, Japan could deploy its defence forces.

Iwao Horii, Senior Vice Foreign Minister, who attended the forum together with Akazawa, also met with Wang separately, Japan’s leading Kyodo News Agency reported.

During their meeting, Horii asked China to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in China, he told the reporters.

This comes after a knife attack in Shanghai on two Japanese men and one Chinese woman, who were injured at a Japanese restaurant in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Since the escalation of tensions between the two nations regarding Takaichi’s remarks, Tokyo has maintained that it stays open for dialogue with Beijing and hopes to arrange a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Takaichi during an APEC summit in November to improve strained relations, noted the report.

Akazawa stressed that "The Japanese government policy of seeking strategic and mutually beneficial ties with China remains unchanged."

China has increased pressure on Japan with tighter export control on dual-use items, which include rare earths, after the escalation, the report highlighted.

It added that after the conclusion of the APEC session, Akazawa called for the removal of export control measures on rare earths as they could "severely impact global supply chains," and are not in line with international practices.

Taiwan, which is also a member of the APEC, sent Yang Jen-ni, its trade representative to the forum, but neither Akazawa nor Horii had any contact with the representative, according to the Japanese officials.

–AHN

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