Japan and China agreed Saturday to cooperate in arranging measures to boost the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund for assistance to Europe. Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Xuren, confirmed the policy in their talks in Tokyo as there are strong expectations for the two countries' financial contributions to the IMF, according to a report of Jiji Press. Azumi and Xie agreed that the two countries will decide on the measures by a meeting in Washington on April 19 of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies. Increasing the IMF's lending resources is expected to be one of major agenda items at the G-20 meeting. This was the fourth dialogue between Japanese and Chinese finance ministers. The first such dialogue was held in Beijing in 2006. After Saturday's talks, Azumi told reporters that he and Xie agreed the European debt crisis has passed through a critical stage but that the situation does not warrant optimism.
