Chinese president meets Japanese PM on advancing ties

Chinese President Hu Jintao met here Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as the two sides agreed to further advance mutually beneficial relations of strategic significance."Since the two countries normalized their relations 39 years ago, with the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral exchange and cooperation in various areas have reached unprecedented levels," Hu said.The two leaders met on the sidelines of the 19th Leaders' Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.Hu said that both China and Japan are close neighbors and important countries in the region and the world."The improvement and growth of China-Japan relations have not only benefited the two countries and their peoples, but also made positive contributions to peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world," Hu said.Hu pointed out that China has always held a strategic and long-term view in developing China-Japan relations and adhered to a friendly policy toward Japan.Hu said China is ready to work with the Japanese side to strengthen all-round dialogues, exchanges and cooperation on bilateral, regional and global dimensions and in the areas of politics, economy, culture and people-to-people exchanges.He expressed readiness to deepen the China-Japan mutually beneficial relationship of strategic significance in a sustained way and jointly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties with Japan next year.He further noted that China appreciated Noda's statement after becoming prime minister on deepening Japan-China mutually beneficial relations of strategic significance and emphasizing this as a fundamental foreign policy of the Japanese government.The Chinese president put forward a five-point proposal on further advancing bilateral ties, including maintaining high-level contact to enhance political mutual trust, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation by strengthening collaboration in the areas of green and low-carbon emissions, recycling, the economy and high technology so as to upgrade the bilateral trade ties."We are glad to see that Japan has made positive progress in the reconstruction work following the March 11 (2011) major earthquake," he said, adding China is ready to continue to provide necessary assistance to Japan in this regard.Hu said the two sides should expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges and use the occasion of celebrating the 40th anniversary of normalizing ties to develop a long-term plan for exchanges in the areas of youth, young cadres, culture, tourism, media and local governments so as to improve mutual understanding and friendly feelings between the two peoples.He also hoped the two sides can advance regional cooperation and enhance coordination on international issues, saying China is ready to work with Japan to maintain peace and stability in northeast Asia, promote regional cooperation in Asia and strengthen dialogue, coordination and cooperation on such global issues as the international financial crisis, climate change, environment and energyFinally, he said China and Japan should properly handle disputes to safeguard stability in the region, suggesting that the two sides properly address differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation.He said the two sides have accumulated much consensus and understanding on handling sensitive issues between them over a long period of time, and he said he hoped that both sides will continue to maintain and observe this consensus and understanding.Noda, for his part, said ties between Japan and China are very important to both sides, as well as to the world. Moreover, he said the two countries should expand their relations in a stable way.He said next year will be the 40th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties, adding that Japan is ready to make joint efforts with China to further deepen the mutually beneficial relationship of strategic significance.Noda said the two sides should strengthen dialogue and exchanges, especially the exchanges between young people, so as to improve mutual understanding between the two peoples and reinforce the foundation of bilateral ties.Also, he said the two countries should improve cooperation and coordination on regional and international affairs so as to jointly play an active role in promoting stability and prosperity of the Asia Pacific region and the world.On the problems between the two countries, Noda said the two sides should deal with them properly to prevent them from affecting bilateral ties.