Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet Japan's and Canada’s prime ministers for the first time on Friday, a day after Beijing and Washington agreed to a trade truce after months of economic tensions.
The meeting in Busan, South Korea, saw Trump announce a cut in the US tariffs and Xi, in response, agreeing to maintain flows of rare-earth minerals and hike soybean imports. Xi remains in South Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where he is expected to meet Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Takaichi, a regular visitor to the flashpoint Yasukuni shrine honouring Japan's war dead, is seen as a China hawk; however, since being elected, she has toned down her rhetoric. In her first state address last Friday, she declared that the military activities of China, North Korea and Russia “have become a grave concern”.
She announced that Japan would be spending two per cent of the GDP on defence this fiscal year, a target that Tokyo had planned to achieve by 2030. China has responded by questioning Japan’s seriousness about the peace, saying Tokyo’s actions raise serious doubts despite its stated intentions. However, the prospects of peace must still be explored.
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Besides, Takaichi Xi is also expected to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney -- their first meeting since the Liberal leader's election in April and the first formal visit between the leaders of Canada and China since 2017.
Relations between the two nations had deteriorated in 2018 after the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver and Beijing's retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges.
The meeting with Carney and Takaichi is aimed at reviving the trade ties, increasing cooperation in trade and communications to minimise the impact of the ongoing tariffs imposed on all three nations.
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