U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has sent a clear warning to Beijing, which lays claim to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, saying Washington opposes any unilateral action that would weaken Japan's control of the chain.
In a joint new conference Friday after meeting with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at the State Department, Clinton also said the United States has invited Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit Washington for talks with President Barack Obama in the third week of February.
The new Liberal Democratic Party administration had sought to arrange a bilateral summit with Obama in January but gave up on the idea, in part due to the president's tight schedule because of inaugural events for his second term.