China and Japan agreed on Friday that "different positions exist" on a chain of disputed uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday. In an apparent breakthrough in ties that have long been soured by the disagreement, the two nations also agreed to establish a crisis mechanism and to hold talks to prevent the dispute from getting out of control.
The two countries will gradually resume political, diplomatic and security dialogue, China's foreign ministry said in a statement following a meeting between China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and Shotaro Yachi, national security adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
But Japan must face up to and properly handle sensitive issues such as history and the islands, Yang was quoted as saying in a statement.
The news comes ahead of a visit by Abe to Beijing for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
A one-on-one meeting on its sidelines between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping would signal a thaw in relations between the world's second- and third-biggest economies.
The dispute over control of the islands, known to China as the Diaoyu and in Japan as the Senkaku, has seriously strained ties between Asia's two largest economies. Ties have chilled in the past two years over a territorial row, regional rivalry and the bitter legacy of Japan's wartime occupation of China.
Abe has not had a substantive exchange with Xi since the Japanese leader took office in December 2012, although the two shook hands at a G20 summit in Russia in September 2013.
Japan's NHK public TV reported on Friday that Tokyo and Beijing had agreed to hold final concrete discussions on the meeting, which it noted would be the first "formal" talks between the two countries' leaders since May 2012, when Abe's predecessor was in office.
NHK did not elaborate on the meaning of "formal".
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