Foreign and Military Affairs
President Hu, Japanese PM hold talks in Yokohama
By Wu Jiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-13 17:13
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China and Japan should make efforts to ensure their relations continue along a healthy and stable track, Chinese President Hu Jintao said at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
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The meeting followed more than two months of territorial tensions between Asia's top two economies.
Hu said it serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples for the two countries to get along.
He urged the two countries to take a strategic and long-term perspective and observe the principles of four important political documents (the joint statement in 1972, the Peace and Friendship Treaty in 1978, the joint declaration in 1998 and the joint statement this May).
According to Hu, both sides should work together to conduct human and cultural exchanges, deepen mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.
China and Japan, as two important trade partners, should increase dialogue and coordination in global affairs to rejuvenate Asia and tackle global challenges, said Hu.
Kan said he completely agreed with Hu’s views on bilateral ties, according to the Chinese foreign ministry press release.
Kan pledged to strengthen exchanges between the two countries in every sector and to push bilateral ties to further improve.
The positive signals given by the two leaders have come after bilateral ties were strained after a collision between two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats and a Chinese trawler on Sept 7 in waters off the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Beijing suspended all high-level contact with Tokyo after Japan detained the Chinese trawler captain.
Premier Wen Jiabao and Kan last met in Brussels in early October in a hallway on the sidelines of a summit for Asian and European leaders. Both Wen and Kan reiterated their claim on the islands during the meeting, making no breakthrough in the dispute.
Later last month, a long-awaited meeting between Wen and Kan failed to take place alongside a regional summit in Vietnam, which a senior Chinese official said was a result of the Japanese ruining the atmosphere by emphasizing their claim on the islands to other countries.
The continuous tensions between the two countries have put the Hu-Kan meeting under a spotlight..
World media had focused on whether Hu would meet Kan on the sidelines of the summit, with some media saying that the meeting has already overtaken the summit as the top news.
It is the first time that the top Chinese leader has visited Japan since the September row.
Japan's Kyodo News website put the photo of Hu's arrival at the Tokyo airport on its front page, overtaking the photo of the United States President Barack Obama and Kan as the two met for a formal bilateral meeting when the two vowed to strengthen their alliance.
