China’s President Xi Jinping and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday showed their willingness to improve bilateral relations between the two countries, agreeing to reopen lines of communication, in what was the first meeting between the leaders of these countries in three years.
«We agreed to communicate closely at various levels, including at the leaders’ level,» Kishida acknowledged after a 45-minute meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok.
«Today’s meeting was a good start for a dialogue toward a constructive and stable relationship between Japan and China,» the Japanese prime minister said, as reported by Kiodo news agency.
Xi pointed out that Beijing and Tokyo share many common interests, as well as a space for cooperation. He also expressed his hope that the countries can build relations that «meet the requirements of the new era».
«China and Japan are close neighbors of each other, and both are important countries in Asia and the world, sharing many common interests and space for cooperation. (…) China is willing to work with Japan to grasp the overall direction of bilateral relations from a strategic perspective and build a China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era,» Xinhua news agency reports.
In this line, the Chinese leader emphasized that both sides should treat each other «with sincerity and mutual trust» in order to «be cooperative partners with each other and not pose threats to each other».
The Japanese Prime Minister announced that he has agreed to boost communications on security, to resume defense contacts between the countries and to coordinate a visit to China by the Foreign Minister.
Both leaders will promote cooperation in environmental protection, energy saving, health and resume bilateral economic dialogue, as well as a cultural exchange.
Kishida also conveyed to Xi Japan’s «serious concern» over tensions in the Senkaku Islands and the launching of ballistic missiles near Taiwan, which in August fell in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The two leaders have held telephone talks in the past after Kishida was elected prime minister of Japan, according to reports in ‘The Japan Times’. Xi had previously met with the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2019.
Last September, China and Japan marked 50 years of diplomatic relations, although relations have generally been overshadowed by tensions over territorial disputes between the two.
