China, Japan and South Korea discussions over three-way Peru meeting may boost summit hopes
China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and Japanese counterpart Taro Aso resumed Sino-Japanese dialogue in June after three-year delay, and are to meet on sidelines at this week's G20 meeting
Japan, China and South Korea are discussing a possible trilateral meeting of their finance ministers in Peru this week, said Finance Minister Taro Aso – a move that could pave the way for a summit between the countries to soothe strained relations.
Aso also said he would hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Lou Jiwei, on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders to be held in Lima this week.
“[The two countries] will discuss macro-finance, the economy and financial cooperation,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.
The two men met had met in Beijing in June at the in the Fifth China-Japan Finance Dialogue - a move that reopened talks for economic cooperation after more than a three-year delay due to tensions between the two countries.
Aso also said he would tell his G20 counterparts that Japan’s economy continued to recover moderately, despite growing signs it might have slipped into recession again.
“Japan’s economic fundamentals are not bad at all,” said Aso, who will travel to Lima for the G20 and IMF meetings.
The economy of Japan contracted during the three months from April to June and is expected to have barely grown or even shrunk again between July and September as slumping demand in China weighs on already sluggish exports and factory output.
Japan’s central bank, the Bank of Japan, is under pressure to deploy further stimulus to spur growth, although it is thought it will hold off on any action at its rate review this week in the hope that a tightening job market will gradually lift wages and consumption.
Aso, when asked whether the central bank ought to ease policy at its rate review this week, said: “Answering that will be tantamount to intervening in monetary policy affairs, which I won’t do.”
If a trilateral finance ministerial meeting were to be held, it would be the first such talks since May, when financial leaders from the three countries gathered in the sidelines of an Asian Development Bank annual meeting.
While discussions will be likely to focus on financial cooperation and economic developments, the meeting could lay the grounds for a possible trilateral summit later this year.
Japanese media have reported that China, Japan and South Korea are considering holding their first summit in three years, sometime around November.
