Beijing, Tokyo vow to strengthen dialogue

Beijing and Tokyo agreed to strengthen strategic communication and promote healthy, stable and forward-looking development of their relations during a high-level dialogue on Tuesday.

Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presided over the fifth China-Japan high-level political dialogue along with Shotaro Yachi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's national security adviser, in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty, Yang said.

President Xi Jinping had reached an important consensus with Abe on improving and developing bilateral ties during their meeting on the sidelines of the fourth Eastern Economic Forum in Russia this month. In addition, Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan in May.

"China and Japan should cherish and maintain this rare, positive relationship momentum, make good plans for and carry forward high-level exchanges together and add new driving force to bilateral ties to make sure that the Sino-Japanese relationship will move steadily and reach far along the normal development track while abiding by the principles and spirit of the four political documents between the two countries," Yang said.

China and Japan should get an accurate hold on the broad direction of peace, friendship and cooperation, make clear that they are partners rather than threats to each other, and push trade and economic cooperation to a higher level with better quality, Yang said.

Yachi, who also heads Japan's secretariat of the National Security Council, said he agrees with Yang on the bilateral relationship and is willing to work with China to promote continuous and stable improvement and the development of ties.

Yang said China and Japan are maintaining close communication with each other regarding Abe's upcoming visit to China.

Japanese media reported that Abe is likely to visit Beijing around Oct 23, the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty taking effect. Abe's trip would be the first state visit to China by a Japanese prime minister in seven years.

Abe won his party's election in a landslide victory on Sept 20, securing his third term as Japanese prime minister and moving him closer to becoming the longest-serving one.

Masanari Koike, a visiting fellow at Tsinghua University and former member of Japan's House of Representatives, said the improvement in Sino-Japanese ties has come at a good time for both nations.

"People to people and industrial interactions between two countries should support the positive momentum led by governments," Koike said.