Premier Li Keqiang held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Howard Johnson Conference Resort in Dujiangyan, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, on Dec 25.
“China-Japan relations have shown good momentum of improvement and development, which is hard-earned. China thinks highly of China-Japan relations, and President Xi Jinping met with you in Beijing,” Premier Li said to Abe. The Premier went on to say that both countries should observe the principles of the four political documents between them.
According to the Premier, the two countries should take history as a mirror and face up to the future. Focusing on the present, they should adopt a long-term perspective to appropriately handle sensitive issues. "Thus, we can make the back-on-track China-Japan ties continue to attain new development. We hope Japan will meet China halfway and create favorable conditions and atmosphere for more high-level exchanges."
Both China and Japan are major economies of the world, and they are each other’s important trade partner, said Premier Li. He also mentioned that China is opening up the service industry, which will provide better opportunities to enhance cooperation with Japan. In terms of handling the aging issue, there is wide scope for cooperation of mutual benefit and reciprocity, the Premier said. In some sectors of the modern service industry, such as securities, life insurance and medical care, China hopes to have more in-depth cooperation with Japan featuring some bold moves to foster new cooperation opportunities in trial cities. Cooperation in other sectors such as investment, innovation and third-party market should be strengthened. With more frequent people-to-people exchanges, the public opinion foundation of China-Japan relations can be reinforced, said the Premier.
The 8th China-Japan-Republic of Korea (ROK) leaders' meeting was a complete success. “We jointly looked into and planned the future development of cooperation among China, Japan and ROK, and sent out positive signals of maintaining multilateralism and free trade, and safeguarding the regional peace and stability,” said Premier Li.
According to the Premier, China is willing to enhance communication and coordination with all parties, including Japan, to further promote the timely signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) next year and to accelerate the China-Japan-ROK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. It is not only conducive to promoting regional economic integration, but also beneficial to facilitating WTO reform.
Abe congratulated the Premier on the success of the 8th China-Japan-ROK leaders' meeting. He said that the three countries have made considerable achievements over the past 20 years, which greatly benefit their people.
Premier Li’s visit to Japan last year brought the Sino-Japan relations back onto the normal track, he said.
Saying that Japan and China shoulder important responsibilities to maintain regional and global peace, development and prosperity, he called for more high-level exchanges and communication to usher in a new era of bilateral relations.
Seeing the vast scope for cooperation, Japan is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in areas such as the population aging issue, finance, tourism, environmental protection, disaster reduction and medical care, he said.
Also, as the two countries have already made progress in technological innovation, third-party market and other areas, Japan will make joint efforts with China to advance the cooperation.
Japan appreciates China’s efforts to expand opening-up in the service sector, and will actively participate in the process, he said.
And Japan will work with related countries to promote the early signing of the high-level RCEP and advance the China-Japan-ROK FTA negotiations.
Premier Li and Abe visited the Dujiangyan Irrigation System after the meeting.
