Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not sit down for one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Thursday-Friday Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.
Although the ministry will work hard to arrange a chat between the two leaders somewhere at the G-20 venue, the official said it is uncertain whether that will be possible amid the current strain Sino-Japanese ties.
A meeting between Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the fringes of the summit of the G-20 major economies is also not in the cards, either, according to the official.
Japan's relations with China and South Korea remain soured over territorial disputes and differing perspectives on Japan's wartime conduct.