Wednesday 27th October
Kan to visit Vietnam from Thursday to attend Asian summits
TOKYO, Prime Minister Naoto Kan will visit Vietnam from Thursday to attend a series of regional summits, during which he will explain Japan’s latest stance on Asia, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Tuesday.
Kan’s four-day visit to Hanoi includes his attendance at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea on Friday and the 16-member East Asia Summit on Saturday.
Among several bilateral meetings, Kan is scheduled to meet with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung on Sunday.
Sengoku said at a news conference the meetings would be ‘‘extremely meaningful’’ for Kan, providing an opportunity to explain his strong interest in addressing common issues facing the region.
Attention is focused on whether Kan will be able to hold ‘‘official’’ bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the Vietnamese capital, as the two Asian powers are seeking to repair frayed relations stemming from early September collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats off a chain of disputed islets in the East China Sea.
Sengoku said Japan and China are trying to arrange a bilateral meeting between Kan and Wen in Hanoi but have yet to fix the schedule.
According to government officials, Japan and China are exploring the possibility of setting up a meeting between them on Friday.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/kan-to-visit-vietnam-from-thursday-to-attend-asian-summits
