Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met Friday with former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Boao, in south China's Hainan Province.

Fukuda is attending the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), and he was elected as the new chairman of the forum's board of directors.

Xi congratulated Fukuda, saying the new members of the board would increase the forum's influence in the region and the world, and he believed that, with the efforts of the new board of directors, the forum would play a bigger role in promoting Asian cooperation and enhancing mutual understanding and cooperation between Asia and the world.

Fukuda said he was honored to be elected chairman, and he would work closely with other parties to promote the development of the forum.

Xi praised Fukuda's contribution to the development of China-Japan relations in his term as prime minister.

"With big changes taking place in the international and regional situations, China-Japan relations are facing a new opportunity for development. China will work with all circles of Japan, and grasp the opportunity to bring the bilateral strategic relationship of reciprocity to a new high," Xi said.

Fukuda said the relationship was increasingly important.

The 2010 meeting of BFA, from April 9 to 11, is focused on Asia's green and sustainable development in the post-economic crisis period.

Singaporean Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were also elected members of the board of directors.