Japan, China to hold summit meeting on Monday amid island row

HANGZHOU, China Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, the Japanese government said, the first such meeting in more than a year as Asia's two largest countries are locked in a territorial dispute.


The meeting will follow the conclusion of the two-day G20 summit that started on Sunday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.


Tension flared up last month after more than a dozen Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailed near a group of East China Sea islets controlled by Tokyo but claimed also by Beijing, making a meeting between the two top leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit uncertain.


Ties between Japan and China have also been strained by the South China Sea dispute, with Japan urging China to adhere to a ruling by an international court that invalidated China's territorial claims there. China warned Japan not to interfere.


(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, editing by Louise Heavens)

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