Japan, China planning Abe-Xi summit on Oct. 24 in Beijing

Abe is scheduled to make a three-day visit to China from Oct. 23, which falls on the 40th anniversary of the coming into effect of a bilateral peace and friendship treaty, KYODO NEWS reports.

The last Japanese prime minister to travel to China for the primary purpose of holding formal talks with Chinese leaders was Yoshihiko Noda in December 2011.

Since taking office in late 2012, Abe has held face-to-face talks with Xi seven times, which all lasted less than an hour and took place on the sidelines of multilateral meetings, including the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, southeastern China, in 2016 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Beijing in 2014.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing, which until a few years ago were locked in bitter disputes over the sovereignty of a group of small islands in the East China Sea and wartime history, have been improving.

Abe met with Xi earlier this month in Vladivostok, when he visited the Russian Far East city for a regional economic forum, and agreed to speed up preparations for a trip to China.

According to the sources, Abe is likely to leave for the Chinese capital on the afternoon of Oct. 23 and attend a ceremony later in the day to mark the treaty's anniversary.

During the talks with Xi and other high-ranking Chinese officials, including Premier Li Keqiang, Abe is expected to call for greater economic cooperation and the promotion of people-to-people exchanges, while North Korea and China's trade friction with the United States are also likely to be discussed.

He is also likely to agree with the Chinese leaders to launch an "innovation dialogue" aimed at discussing ways to cooperate in developing artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies and to resume a bilateral currency swap arrangement to prepare for financial crises.

On the last day of his trip on Oct. 25, Abe may visit the southern city of Shenzhen, neighboring Hong Kong, which is home to a number of successful Chinese start-up companies producing cutting-edge technologies, the sources said.