BEIJING (Sputnik) – Kishida’s three-day visit to China is the first direct bilateral contact between the two countries in four and a half years, excluding international occasions.
"China and Japan are neighbors and we hope, of course, to develop healthy and stable neighborly relations with Japan," Wang Yi said on Saturday as quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, adding that he hoped that Kishida’s visit would improve bilateral ties.
Political tension between China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, respectively, escalated in 2012 when the Japanese government nationalized control over three of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China. The islands are part of Japan's Okinawa Prefecture but are also claimed by China, as well as Taiwan.
