Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday that he had received an invitation from his Chinese counterpart, Chen Gang, to visit China, as the two countries are heading towards stabilizing relations.
Hayashi said – in a press conference – that Tokyo will continue to coordinate with Beijing on the date of the first visit by a Japanese foreign minister to China since December 2019, according to the Japanese Kyodo News Agency.
The invitation came when Hayashi and Chen, who became foreign minister in late December, held a 50-minute phone conversation, their first as their countries’ top diplomats, on Thursday night.
Hayashi’s trip was also agreed upon by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met in the Thai capital, Bangkok, last November, as part of their efforts to improve bilateral relations strained over bilateral issues such as the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea that Japan controls and claims. China too, as well as growing tensions over the Taiwan Strait.
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