China's Hu sees 'turning point' in Japanese visit

Oct 8, 2006, 13:39 GMT

Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday hailed a visit by new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a 'turning point' in bilateral relations, which had cooled after Chinese leaders refused to meet Abe's predecessor for five years.

'Your ongoing visit is serving as a turning point in China-Japan relations and I hope it would also serve as a new starting point for the improvement and development of bilateral ties,' state media quoted Hu as telling Abe during talks in Beijing.

Hu congratulated Abe on becoming prime minister and said his choice of China for his first overseas visit showed that Abe 'has attached great importance to the improvement and development of the relations between the two neighbours.'

In his fence-mending talks, Abe planned to propose that Japan and China build a 'strategic relationship of mutual interest,' Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a senior Japanese official as saying.

Wen told Abe that bilateral relations faced 'both new opportunities of development and lots of challenges', the government's official Xinhua news agency said.

He said the issue of Japanese leaders visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine must be 'properly solved', and that 'politcal obstacles' must be 'removed in line with the consensus reached between the two nations.'

'Promises must be kept and action must be resolute' to guarantee the improvement of bilateral ties, Wen said.

Wen shook hands with Abe as a guard of honour welcomed the Japanese leader in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, before formal talks in the nearby Great Hall of the People.

Apart from bilateral issues, Abe's talks in Beijing were expected to be dominated by how to respond to North Korea's statement last week that it plans to conduct a nuclear test.

The leaders of China and Japan had not met since former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's 2001 visit to Yasukuni, which honours Japan's war dead, including 14 class-A war criminals convicted after World War II.

Earlier this year, Hu highlighted Koizumi's visits to the shrine as the 'major obstacle in the China-Japan relationship.'

Abe has previously visited the shrine but has declined to say if he plans to do so as prime minister.

China wants him to make a public promise not to visit the shrine but senior Japanese officials on Saturday said Abe was likely to stick to his position that he will decide on future visits with his 'heart.'

Apart from the shrine visits, the two sides were expected to discuss disputes over offshore oil and gas exploration and control of islands in the East China Sea.

Abe's trip to Beijing is the first part of what he calls a new 'proactive diplomacy' for Japan.

In his recent policy address to the Japanese parliament, Abe said Japan's close economic ties to China and South Korea made the improvement of diplomatic relations 'extremely important for the Asian region and the entire international community.'

The value of Japan's exports to China soared to 80 billion dollars in 2005, with imports from China reaching 108 billion dollars, according to Japanese statistics.

Abe was scheduled to give a press conference late Sunday evening, before flying to South Korea early Monday for similar talks in Seoul.