Abe meets Li on rare China trip

Promising meeting: Abe (left) and Li in discussion at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. — Reuters

BEIJING: Japan’s Shinzo Abe and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang commemorated the 40th anniversary of a friendship treaty at the start of a rare trip to Beijing by the Japanese prime minister, who is seeking to repair frayed relations.

Abe’s visit is part of a painstaking courtship aimed at winning over the world’s second economy after a disastrous falling-out in 2012, when Tokyo “nationalised” disputed islands claimed by Beijing.