Sino-Japan security dialogue to be held

China and Japan will hold a security dialogue later this month in the island country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday.

At a regular media briefing, the spokeswoman said that the diplomatic departments of the two countries were in regular contact and Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao is scheduled to visit South Korea and Japan later this month, Xinhua news agency reported.

Liu will hold diplomatic talks with officials of South Korea's foreign affairs department, and will have a security dialogue and regular diplomatic talks with his counterparts in Japan.

"The Sino-Japan security dialogue and the regular talk mechanism are animportant bridge for the countries' foreign affairs and defense departments to communicate," Hua was quoted as saying.

She also said the two countries will take advantage of the dialogue to exchange their views on bilateral relations, defense and security policies, as well as the international and regional issues that concern both China and Japan.

In November, China and Japan signed a four-point agreement to ease tensions, including through resuming political, diplomatic and security dialogues while acknowledging different positions on the Diaoyu Islands.

Earlier this week, Qian Lihua, a political advisor and general who used to head the foreign affairs office under the Ministry of National Defense, said China and Japan are poised to launch a formal mechanism to manage local maritime and aerial crises.

The mechanism, agreed upon in June 2012 but shelved amid territorial disputes between the two countries, will be launched "soon" so long as Japan does not create new obstacles to the improvement of bilateral relations, he said.

The defense departments of the two sides reached a consensus on various aspects of the mechanism in January, including reaffirming previous agreements, he said. They agreed to change the system's name from "maritime liaison mechanism" to "maritime and aerial liaison mechanism".