China, SKorea Put Missile Rift on Hold to Join AIIB Meeting

Putting aside a rift over a U.S. anti-missile system, top officials from China and South Korea are attending a meeting of a China-backed Asian lending bank on the South Korean island of Jeju.

Chinese finance minister Xiao Jie and his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley are among those attending the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's annual meeting, which started Friday in Jeju.

South Korea was picked as the meeting's host before Beijing began protesting Seoul's agreement to allow its ally the United States to deploy on its territory key components of the so-called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system.

The China-led AIIB has 77 member countries.

It was unclear if the meeting would pave a way for a thaw or if finance ministers from China and South Korea would meet on its sidelines.