Consensus urged for new era relations

President Xi Jinping underlined on Monday the need for China and Japan to implement their political consensus that they "treat each other as cooperative partners instead of threats" in developing bilateral ties.

While meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi said the two countries should keep moving their relations forward along the right track in the spirit of "turning competition into coordination".

Xi told Abe that Sino-Japanese relations in the new era call for a clear strategic consensus. Both countries should actively advance mutually beneficial, win-win cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, Xi said.

Both nations should adhere to the principles of the four political documents they signed in 1972, 1978, 1998 and 2008, to properly handle major sensitive issues and consolidate the political basis of bilateral ties, Xi said. He added that these are fundamental for developing the Sino-Japanese relationship in the new era, and must not be lightly treated and undermined.

He called on the two countries to advance high-quality collaboration in jointly building the Belt and Road, as well as third-country market cooperation, and to strengthen pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation in such sectors as artificial intelligence, big data and the internet of things.

Both countries should also proactively foster a two-way, transparent and nondiscriminatory environment for innovation cooperation, Xi said, and he called for tourism cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, as well as mutual support for hosting the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 and the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

Xi underscored the importance of enhancing mutual trust in security issues, and called on Japan to shoulder its international responsibilities, uphold multilateralism and promote free trade to advance the building of an open world economy.

Abe said frequent high-level exchanges between Japan and China this year have enhanced mutual understanding.

He said Japan-China relations have maintained good momentum for development, which is greatly significant for the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and even the world.

Japan considers Xi's state visit to Japan in the spring to be very important, and Tokyo is willing to keep close communications to ensure the visit is a full success, Abe told Xi.

Japan stands ready to work with China to advance third-country cooperation, and intensify communication and coordination on regional issues, he added.

Bilateral trade between China and Japan reached more than $327 billion in 2018, rising 8.1 percent year-on-year. Since 2007, China has been Japan's largest trade partner.

Abe arrived in Beijing on Monday. He will attend the eighth China-Japan-ROK leaders' meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Tuesday.