Japan and
China will hold their first bilateral financial dialogue in two years on
Saturday to discuss risks to Asia's economic outlook, such as the protectionist
policies
advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump and tension over North Korea,
officials said.
Chinese
Finance Minister Xiao Jie, who missed a trilateral meeting with his Japanese
and South Korean counterparts on Friday for an emergency domestic meeting, has
flown in for the bilateral dialogue, seeking to dispel speculation his absence
had diplomatic implications.
Xiao and
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso will discuss issues ranging from North
Korea's nuclear and missile program to the two countries' economic outlook and
financial cooperation during the dialogue, to be held on the sidelines of the
Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Yokohama, eastern Japan.
Senior
finance officials from both countries will also hold a separate round of talks,
Japanese Finance Ministry officials say.
Relations
between Japan and China have been strained over territorial rows and Japan's
occupation of parts of China in World War Two, though leaders have recently
sought to mend ties through dialogue.
Still,
China's increasing presence in infrastructure finance has alarmed some Japanese
policymakers, who worry that Beijing's new development bank, the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), may overshadow the Japan-backed ADB.
Japan and
China do agree on the need to respect free trade, which is crucial to Asia's
trade-dependent economies.
Finance
officials from Japan, China and South Korea agreed to resist all forms of
protectionism in Friday's trilateral meeting, taking a stronger stand than G20
major economies against the protectionist policies advocated by Trump.
China has
positioned itself as a supporter of free trade in the wake of Trump's calls to
put America's interests first and pull out of multilateral trade agreements.
Japan has
taken a more accommodative stance toward Washington's argument that trade must
not just be free but fair.
REUTERS
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