Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday held talks for only the second time since taking office, seeking to repair a relationship damaged by territorial disputes and a bitter wartime legacy.
Xi and Abe met on the sidelines of a summit in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for about 30 minutes, a Japanese official said, speaking anonymously.
The two men looked more relaxed than at a meeting in November last year in China. Beijing and Tokyo’s historically frosty relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades over competing claims to Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea and China’s view that Abe is not sufficiently repentant about Japan’s wartime aggression.
Prior to the meeting, Abe, a strident nationalist, stoked fresh regional anger by stopping short of apologizing for Japan’s World War II actions in Asia during a speech to a gathering of Asian and African leaders. He expressed “deep remorse,” but did not make a “heartfelt apology” or refer to “colonial rule and aggression,” failing to echo the language of a landmark 1995 statement on Japanese wartime aggression and drawing a rebuke from South Korea.
“Japan, with feelings of deep remorse over the past war, made a pledge to remain a nation always adhering to those very principles throughout, no matter what the circumstances,” Abe said.
As well as the statement later he is due to make later this year marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, attention will focus on Abe’s choice of words about the war when he heads to the US this weekend on a week-long trip, during which he is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress.
In the Jakarta speech, Abe also made a veiled attack at China over ongoing maritime disputes.
“We should never allow to go unchecked the use of force by the mightier to twist the weaker around,” he said.
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