Premier Li urges Japan to put bilateral relations on right track

Premier Li Keqiang urged Japan to stick to peaceful development, as well as take positive policies toward China to improve bilateral ties when meeting with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Beijing on Saturday.

Premier Li said a healthy and stable tie between China and Japan is consistent with both countries and both peoples and contributes to regional and global stability and prosperity.

China-Japan relations, which have had some fallbacks over the past few years, are improving but on a fragile basis, the premier said. China is willing to strengthen political trust with its neighbor and promote bilateral relations back to a normal track of development, he said.

"China hopes Japan can keep on with peaceful development and take real actions to fulfill its consensus about opportunities created by China's peaceful development," Li said.

He also said Japan should appropriately manage sensitive factors that will substantially affect bilateral relations, as well as create a positive atmosphere to resume bilateral dialogues and the trilateral leaders' meeting of China, South Korea and Japan.

Kishida said Japan is willing to show mutual respect, strengthen political trust and manage disputes. He also said Japan will strengthen cooperation with China in various fields to accumulate positive factors that may boost bilateral relations.

From Friday to Sunday, Kishida is paying his first official visit to China since taking office more than three years ago, and he is the first Japanese foreign minister to visit China after Shinzo Abe was reelected as the country's prime minister in 2012.

Earlier Saturday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Kishida before the visitor had a chance to meet with State Councilor Yang Jiechi and the premier in the afternoon.