Japanese, Chinese finance ministers to meet next month

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Japanese and Chinese finance ministers will hold a bilateral meeting on June 6, the first time in more than three years, Japanese Finance Ministry said on Thursday. The talks in Beijing will be attended by Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and his Chinese counterpart Lou Jiwei, the ministry said.

The meeting, the sixth in its kind since 2006, may cover such topics as the world's second- and third-largest economies, bilateral financial cooperation as well as global financial cooperation.

The bilateral finance dialogue has not been held since April 2012 amid long-standing historical grievances and deterioration in Japan-China relations over the disputed islands in the East China Sea.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit meeting in November in a sign that Sino-Japanese ties may improve. It was their first bilateral summit since both Abe and Xi came to power in late 2012.