China and Japan had frank discussions on the second day of the
three-day seventh round of strategic dialogue on Friday in Beijing,
China's Foreign Ministry has announced.
The two sides discussed building "strategic, mutually
beneficial" bilateral ties, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and Japanese Vice
Minister for Foreign Affairs Yachi Shotaro are heading the two
delegations at the meeting, which ends on Saturday.
The two sides had "frank" and "in-depth" exchanges of views on
how to cement the sound momentum of improving and developing
bilateral ties, said a statement released by the Foreign
Ministry.
They also conferred on international and regional issues of
common concern, it said.
Both sides agreed to hold next round of strategic dialogue in
Japan at a "convenient time" for both sides.
The first round of the strategic dialogue was held in Beijing in
May 2005.
The China-Japan strategic dialogue was initiated at a time when
bilateral relations faced great difficulties, Dai said in his
opening remarks, adding the dialogue played a role in removing
political obstacles in bilateral relations and getting the
relations back on track.
Both Dai and Shotaro said they still had a "heavy
responsibility" to promote China-Japan ties.
Later on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also met
with Shotaro. "These (talks) provide an important opportunity for
progress in bilateral ties," Li said, urging the two countries to
make joint efforts to advance relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu on Thursday said
the strategic dialogue was an important channel to carry out the
consensus of top leaders of the two countries.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)
