The 2012 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund was held on 12 October 2012 through 14 October 2012 in Japan. Responding to a question at a Press Briefing on 11 October 2012 in Tokyo regards the emerging political tensions between China and Japan over the group of islands in the East China Sea, which Japan administers but over which both countries claim sovereignty, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde could not have been clearer: “We hope that differences, however longstanding, can be resolved harmoniously and expeditiously so that cooperation can continue and can be beneficial not…