Koizumi likely to visit China in August

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is likely to make an official visit to China in August when Tokyo and Beijing celebrate the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of a bilateral treaty on peace and amity, a report said on Sunday.

Ahead of his China trip, Koizumi is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in late May when they gather in Saint Petersburg to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian city’s founding, the Mainichi Shimbun said. At the Saint Petersburg summit, Koizumi will meet Hu for the first time since the Chinese president took office in March and they are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear crisis and the SARS epidemic, the daily said.

Top-level visits between China and Japan have stalled since Koizumi angered Beijing by making three pilgrimages as prime minister to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which honours the Japanese war dead, including World War II leaders condemned by the allied powers as war criminals.

Koizumi did not go to Beijing when Japan and China celebrated the 30th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic ties in September last year. —AFP

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