Increased patrols by ships and aircraft from the two sides in the seas and skies around the rocky islets have raised fears of armed clashes between the world’s second and third largest economies.
But Japanese national TV broadcaster NHK reported Friday that the two sides “agreed to arrange a summit next week” in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering.
Neither side publicly confirmed a summit, though their foreign ministers were holding talks Saturday.
Nonetheless the accord is unlikely to erase all tensions overnight, one Chinese analyst said.
“The ice between China and Japan is too thick to melt in one day,” Yang Bojiang, deputy head of the Institute of Japan Study at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, according to the state run Xinhua news agency.
“China Japan relations are likely to see a new balance between cooperation and confrontation.”
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