Top Leadership  

Hu Jintao

Wu Bangguo

Wen Jiabao

Jia Qinglin

Li Changchun

Xi Jinping

Li Keqiang

He Guoqiang

Zhou Yongkang
Communist Party of China>>News
11:01, December 29, 2007

Chinese leaders hold "heart-to-heart" talks with Japanese prime minister (2)
As China would also host the Olympics next year, Fukuda said Japan would "vigorously support" China and "sincerely look forward to" the success of the Games. Wen also expressed a warm welcome for Japan to take part in the Olympiad.

"To maintain and strengthen the China-Japan friendly ties is the only correct choice of the two countries," Wen said. "It is inline with the fundamental interests of their two peoples and is conducive to the peace and development of northeastern Asia, and the continent as a whole."

The premier said the two nations would strengthen defense exchanges and security dialogues, and schedule "in good time" a China visit by Japan's defense minister and the maritime self-defense force.

He said China and Japan should "properly and cautiously" handle historical and Taiwan issues to safeguard the political basis of the bilateral relations.

Fukuda said Japan would "very earnestly" reflect on the agonizing part of history and continue to follow the path of peaceful development so as to establish "forward-looking China-Japan relations". The two nations had a long-time disagreement on wartime history.

Wen and Fukuda also exchanged views on resources development in the East China Sea and the Taiwan issue.

Shi Yinhong, a professor with the Institute of International Relations under Beijing's Renmin University of China, pointed out that Japan no longer "assumed a dodgy attitude" over the Taiwan issue. It made it clear that Japan would give no support to the claims of "one China, one Taiwan", "Taiwan independence" or Taiwan authorities' attempts to join the United Nations and to seek UN membership through "referendum".

Shi considered it as "significant fruit" of the Chinese diplomacy towards Japan that "created favorable conditions" to continuously improve and develop the Sino-Japanese relations.

The professor believed the East China Sea issue was "very complicated" and the problem would not be solved "in one day" as there were differences in the stands of the two parties.

"It needs the two to conduct frequent, sincere, careful and patient negotiations," Shi said.

During their talks, Wen and Fukuda also touched upon the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday. Both expressed strong opposition against terrorist activities.

Wen also invited Fukuda, a former university athlete, to play baseball player. During Wen's "ice-thawing" trip to Japan in April, the premier played baseball with Japanese college students. The baseball invitation unveiled at Friday's talks, set the dialogue tone as "easy and pleasant".

Xu Dunxin, former Chinese ambassador to Japan, attended the following luncheon hosted by Wen. "The joyous atmosphere at lunch shows that the two parties are satisfied with the meeting and are confident of the future of the bilateral relations," he said.

Xu said Friday's dialogue pointed to a new direction for the Sino-Japanese relations and promised to strengthen joint efforts to resolve hard issues that were not able to produce major achievement soon.

"All these fruits are hard-won and gratify the two parties," Xu said.



[1] [2] [3]

Tell a friend Print friendly Version Print friendly format Save to disk Save this
Related News
 Chinese leaders hold talks with Japanese PM

 Japanese politicians applaud talks between Fukuda, Wen

 Japanese PM deciphers warming ties, calls for "creative partnership" with China


Copyright © 1997-2006 by www.people.com.cn. all rights reserved