Tokyo and Beijing plan to hold a security dialogue, possibly later this month, sources from the two governments have said, amid diplomatic tensions over suspected Chinese spy balloons flown over Japan in the past few years.
The dialogue in Japan would take place after the Japanese Defense Ministry said earlier in the week that at least three unidentified flying objects spotted over the country's territorial airspace from 2019 to 2021 are "strongly suspected" to have been Chinese unmanned spy balloons.
It would involve the countries' senior foreign affairs and defense officials, including Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Shigeo Yamada, the sources said Friday. The previous meeting took place in Beijing in February 2019.