Abe Aiming to Stabilize Japan-China Ties thru Trip

October 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is aiming to stabilize his country's relations with China through his three-day trip to the country from Thursday.

Abe will hold talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang separately on Friday to prepare the ground for Xi's planned visit to Japan next year.

The Japanese leader hopes to boost the bilateral ties from the current phase of improvement to the next phase of stabilization, informed sources said.

Another focus is how far the world's second- and third-largest economies will agree to cooperate toward the denuclearization of North Korea.

Abe will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit China, excluding trips made on the occasions of international meetings, since December 2011, when Yoshihiko Noda held the post.

Abe's visit will follow the 40th anniversary on Tuesday of the effectuation of the two countries' peace and friendship treaty.

Bilateral dialogue grew active after Abe last year expressed his country's intention to cooperate in China's Belt and Road initiative.

The improvement in the relations accelerated when Li made his first visit to Japan as premier in May this year.

"I want to push up the Japan-China relations to a new level," Abe recently said. He aims to fully establish the proposed arrangement of exchanging visits between the two countries' leaders, by making a success of his summit with Xi, the sources said.

Regarding North Korea, Abe hopes to confirm the importance of fully implementing sanctions against the country under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Meanwhile, Beijing is leaning to reviewing the sanctions.

On the economic front, the two sides will exchange views on bilateral cooperation in supporting infrastructure development in third countries.

They are seen agreeing to establish a framework of dialogue on innovation and protection of intellectual property rights.

China apparently hopes to strengthen economic cooperation with Japan at a time its trade war with the United States is intensifying, the sources said.

Abe visited China in September 2016 to attend a Group of 20 summit. He last had a meeting with Xi in September this year in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East. Jiji Press