The foreign ministers of China and Japan held their first formal talks in more than two years today, a day after the Asian powers agreed to reduce tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, reports in both countries said.
The meeting, the first at such a level since September 2012, just before ties soured over an escalating territorial dispute, came after Tokyo and Beijing agreed on a four-point accord to improve their relationship.
Wang called the agreement "a major step" in talks with Kishida, Xinhua said.
Kishida, meanwhile, said the talks were meaningful. "This created an important momentum to shift gears to bring Japan-China relations back to a normal track," he said in remarks shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK.
He said he had stressed the importance of a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
Yesterday's agreement was widely seen as setting the stage for a summit between the two leaders on the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in Beijing, though no official announcement had yet been made.
The neighbours have not held a summit since December 2011 when then prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited Beijing.
Wang and Kishida only held informal meetings in August on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Myanmar, and during the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to reporters, welcomed the Asian powers' deal yesterday.
"We think that any steps that the two countries can take to improve the relationship and reduce the tensions is helpful not just to those two countries but it's helpful to the region," Kerry said.
