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China and Japan wrap up talks, vow to improve ties
2007-01-28
Ministers from China and Japan wrapped up three days of closed-door strategic talks over the weekend, vowing to build "mutually beneficial" ties, Chinese state media reported. The talks, the seventh in a series kicked off in 2005, were carried out by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and Japan's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shotaro Yachi, the Xinhua news agency reported. "The strategic dialogue (has) played a role in removing political obstacles in bilateral relations and getting relations back on track," Dai said, according to Xinhua. The talks began Thursday in Beijing and later moved to Hangzhou, a city in eastern China. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing used them to confirm Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao plans to visit Japan this spring, according to earlier state media reports. "Both sides should work for a complete success of the visit and for long-term, sound and stable progress of bilateral ties," Li was quoted as telling the Japanese minister during one of the sessions. Wen will become the first Chinese leader to visit Japan since former premier Zhu Rongji in 2000. The two Asian giants appear eager to improve relations which have been frosty in recent years, despite close economic ties. They have struggled over a range of disputes, including Japan's military occupation of China last century and rival claims for natural resources in the East China Sea.
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