Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe being welcome to Beijing by China’s PLA honour guard

A much-anticipated summit between Japan and China began in Beijing on Monday, Japanese media reported, after years of animosity between Asia’s two largest economies.

“The meeting began at (0354 GMT) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,” Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said.

The summit, the first in three years, comes after a long period of bitter hostilities focused on a territorial dispute and Japan’s 20th century treatment of China.

A key point of contention has been Tokyo’s refusal to formally acknowledge a sovereignty row over the Senkaku Islands, which it controls but which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.

It comes after the two sides issued very finely worded statements on Friday, which both spun as underlining their own positions.

Japanese Prime Minister commented after the 30-minute meeting that it was a “first step” on the road to improving relations between Asia’s two largest economies after years of hostility.

“It was the first step for improving ties by returning to mutually beneficial relations based on common strategic interests,” Abe told reporters in Beijing on the sidelines of the APEC summit.