TOKYO: The Japanese and Chinese governments are planning to hold a meeting of their foreign chiefs on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related gathering in Laos this month, it has been learned.

Japan’s KAMIKAWA Yoko and China’s Wang Yi are expected to discuss Japan’s release into the sea of tritium-containing treated water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, as well as the detention of Japanese nationals by Chinese authorities.

The envisaged meeting will be the first between the two foreign chiefs since they met in South Korea in November 2023.

Kamikawa is expected to urge the Chinese side to lift its ban on imports of Japanese fishery products, which was imposed after the water release began last year, and to release detained Japanese citizens.

On Friday, the Japanese government said that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister OKANO Masataka and Chinese Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu will hold a strategic dialogue in Tokyo on Monday. It will be the first such meeting since January 2020.

JIJI Press