TOKYO – Japan, China and South Korea will hold ministerial-level health talks Sunday in Seoul, the Japanese government said, amid the recent escalation of tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
Japan’s health ministry made the announcement Friday, saying Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Kenichiro Ueno will attend. China will dispatch a health ministry official in place of its minister, according to a Japanese government source.
China postponed a trilateral culture ministers’ meeting with the two Asian nations, initially scheduled for November in Macao, after Beijing-Tokyo relations deteriorated over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on a Taiwan contingency.
China regards the self-governing democratic island as part of its territory and insists that the Taiwan issue is purely an internal affair.
The Japanese health minister, speaking at a press conference on Friday, voiced his intention to reaffirm the continued cooperative relationship among the three nations. Ueno is scheduled to make a two-day trip to Seoul from Saturday.
The trilateral meeting of the countries’ health ministers has been held almost every year since 2007.
AloJapan.com