Abe arranging a visit to China next month

VLADIVOSTOK: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking here after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping, yesterday said they had agreed to work towards a visit by him to China next month, the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian rivals.

Abe said he and Xi believed Japan and China bore responsibility for world peace and prosperity, and the goal of achieving North Korea’s denuclearisation.

His comments, made on the sidelines of a regional forum here, were aired on Japan’s NHK public broadcaster.

Abe returned to office for a rare second term in December 2012, promising a hard line towards China in a territorial row over tiny islands in the East China Sea.

But although the dispute simmers, relations have stabilised recently amid intensifying United States trade pressure on both.

“In response to its gracious invitation, I intend to visit China this year, in which we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China,” Abe told the forum.

“I very much wish to invite President Xi to Japan. Through this exchange of visits at the leaders’ level, I hope to raise Japan-China relations to a new stage.”

Japanese media have floated Oct 23, the date on which the treaty took effect, as the likely timing of Abe’s visit.

Xi told Abe that Sino-Japanese ties “face an important opportunity for improvement. Under the new circumstances, we should continue to meet each other halfway, maintain the positive momentum and promote the stable development of China-Japan relations to attain even greater expansion (of ties),” said a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Japanese and Chinese officials have been discussing private sector cooperation in third countries, with China believed to be eager for Japanese firms to take part in its Belt and Road Initiative of infrastructure and trade links between China and Eurasia.

Abe said he hoped North Korea would seize the opportunity to improve ties with the international community, but it was “an absolute imperative that we achieve the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.