A group of senior Japanese lawmakers on Monday held talks with Zhang Dejiang, ranked third in the Communist Party of China, and is likely to mention Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's readiness to hold his formal first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
The head of the delegation, Masahiko Komura, vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters that he relayed Abe's hopes off meeting with Xi on the sidelines of this year's summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November in Beijing to former Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Sunday night.
The cross-party delegation's three-day visit to Beijing through Tuesday comes at a frosty time in which almost no high-level political contacts exist between the two countries, a situation that has lasted for several years.