DHAKA: China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called on Japan to ‘make practical efforts to overcome existing political obstacles between the two sides’ during an informal meeting with his Japanese counterpart during an Asean summit in Myanmar.

According to a statement posted on the website of China’s foreign affairs ministry (www.fmprc.gov.cn) on Sunday, Wang met Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum in Naypyidaw on Saturday.

It gave no further details, reports The Straits Times.

Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent months, with each side accusing the other of flying military aircraft too close to its own jets in a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea.

China defied protests by Japan and the United States to establish an air defence zone in the region last November.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has not held talks with Chinese leaders since he returned to power in December 2012. Relations have also been hurt by Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine, regarded by China as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism.

BDST: 1607 HRS, AUG 10, 2014