The wheels of government in China and Japan often turn slowly, but when it comes to fixing perhaps the most dangerous faultline in relations between the two Asian powers, they appear to have ground to a complete halt.

More than a year after Beijing and Tokyo sealed a landmark deal jointly to exploit gas reserves in disputed areas of the East China Sea, officials on the two sides have yet to hold a serious meeting to work out the details of how to implement it.

The lack of action on the June 2008 agreement is troubling. Feuding over gas reserves by Asia's two most energy-hungry economies has for years been seen as a security tinderbox made no less incendiary by its maritime location. Stable Sino-Japanese relations are as important for Asia as Franco-German amity is for Europe – but considerably harder to achieve given a host of unresolved historical issues and the naturally destabilising effect of China's growing economic and military power.