Japan's top national security adviser and his Chinese counterpart have agreed in talks that the countries will continue dialogue toward building constructive and stable bilateral ties, regardless of heightened tensions over Taiwan, their governments said Thursday.
During their roughly seven-hour meeting on Wednesday in the Chinese city of Tianjin, Takeo Akiba, secretary-general of the National Security Secretariat, protested to China's foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi over Beijing's recent large-scale drills near Taiwan, according to a Japanese government official.
Akiba, a former vice foreign minister who assumed his post in July last year, was holding his first in-person talks with Yang. They came as Tokyo and Beijing prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties next month, though neither side appears to be in the mood for a grand celebration.