China, Japan seek end to historical spat
CHINA: Top diplomats from China and Japan sought to overcome
differences linked to Tokyo's wartime past on a second day of talks on
Monday.
Relations are at their worst in decades, weighed down by disputes
springing from Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from
1931 to 1945 and from energy resources in disputed waters.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and his Japanese
counterpart, Shotaro Yachi, began a fifth round of strategic dialogue on
Sunday, the foreign ministry said.
"The two sides exchanged ideas on current China-Japan relations and
issues of common concern," it said in a one-line statement. The talks
were continuing on Monday in the southwestern Guizhou, Dai's home
province, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.
Yachi also proposed the giant neighbours resume foreign ministerial
talks that China halted last year after Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni war shrine, seen in Beijing as a
symbol of Tokyo's past militarism, Kyodo said.
He suggested Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Japanese
counterpart, Taro Aso, meet later this month on the sidelines of an Asia
Cooperation Dialogue meeting in Qatar, the report added. The Japanese
embassy declined to comment on the report and there was no immediate
response from China's foreign ministry.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has said that developing good relations
is in the two countries' fundamental interests but that Koizumi's visits
to the war shrine were a stumbling block.
Despite the frayed relations, China and Japan are both involved in
multilateral talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes.
The negotiations have been on hold since last November, and Dai and
Yachi would discuss how to revive them, Kyodo said. Beijing, Wednesday,
Reuters. |