Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has traveled to South America for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. On Friday, he held his first three-way meeting with US President Joe Biden and South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol since taking office last month. He also sat down for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Ishiba, Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol were expected to discuss issues related to North Korea, including recent military provocations. Last month, the North launched what it claims to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile, and it has been stepping up military cooperation with Russia.
At the beginning of the meeting, Ishiba said: “The security environment surrounding us is extremely severe. For the development and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, the Japan-US alliance, the US-South Korea alliance, and strategic coordination are extremely important.”
Ishiba discussed with Xi ways of promoting a relationship that benefits both their countries. However, he also planned to convey concerns about the situation in the East China Sea and an increase in Chinese military activity near Japan.
Ishiba was slated to ask Xi to take concrete steps to resume imports of Japanese seafood. China blocked the shipments last year after the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began discharging treated and diluted water into the ocean.
Japan’s government says that, before being released, the water is diluted to bring down the level of radioactive tritium to less than one-40th of national regulations, which amounts to about one-seventh of the level the World Health Organization suggests for drinking water.
The two sides reached an agreement in September to allow the imports to resume.
Source: politics.einnews.com…
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