US-Japan trade pact fails to materialise at summit

THE hoped for agreement on a bilateral trade deal between the US and Japan that could have opened the door to a swifter conclusion of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), failed to materialise yesterday at the summit meeting in Tokyo between US President Barrack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Mr Obama was unable to crown the first stage of his four-nation visit to East Asia with the success that such a deal would have brought and although he offered explicit assurances to Mr Abe that the US would defend Japan against any attack on the disputed Senkaku Islands, he was careful to note that he was not drawing any new "red line" under the sensitive issue.

A Chinese foreign ministry official in Beijing meanwhile made it clear yesterday that China continues to consider the Senkaku island chain in the East China Sea as part of its sovereign territory regardless of statements made in Tokyo by the US and Japanese leaders.