TOKYO: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono agreed in Tokyo on Sunday to improve bilateral relations amid a looming trade war between China and the United States.
The two unveiled a plan of mutual visits by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which have not taken place since both leaders took office in 2012 amid strained ties over differing views of wartime history and a territorial spat.
With this year marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of a bilateral peace and friendship treaty, Kono told reporters he and Wang agreed to work for the improvement of the ties across the board.
Wang, who arrived in Tokyo on Sunday for a three-day tour, is the first Chinese foreign minister to visit Japan in more than eight years.
In May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is also scheduled to travel to Japan for a trilateral summit meeting with Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-In.
On North Korea, Kono said he and Wang also confirmed that the two countries “will work in close coordination, while fully implementing the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, to make the complete, irreversible and verifiable abandonment of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes a reality.”
— dpa
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