Good augury for a week of summits

Tokyo

WHETHER or not Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China's President Xi Jinping hold a bilateral meeting during the Apec summit in Beijing, agreement by the two countries to work towards mending their relations will reverberate through a series of other summits being held this week.

From Beijing, Mr Abe will travel to Myanmar for a series of Asean-related summit meetings, before going on to the G-20 summit in Brisbane at the weekend where leaders of leading advanced and emerging economies will be holding their annual gathering.

The prospect of improved relations between East Asia's two biggest powers will send a strong signal to the r…