WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The first trilateral policy dialogue Japan, the United States and China had planned to engage in this month will be delayed because Beijing insists it would anger North Korea, sources close to U.S.-China relations said Wednesday.
The dialogue was planned to take place in Washington, with Japan represented by Koro Bessho, deputy vice foreign minister and director general of the Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Bureau, and the United States by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the State Department's policy planning director. A similar-ranking Foreign Ministry official was expected to represent China.
But Beijing cooled to the session after Pyongyang test-fired missiles and detonated a nuclear device earlier this year, and relayed to Tokyo and Washington its view that a meeting at this juncture is not appropriate, the sources said.
It appears there might be another reason for China's backward-looking manner other than North Korea, because the idea of holding a three-way dialogue was first floated by China and the issue surrounding North Korea had not been included on its agenda.
Beijing may be less interested in the trilateral session involving Japan as the inauguration of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue has underscored the focus by the administration of President Barack Obama on relations with China, the sources said.