Japan, China Ruling Party Execs Agree to Improve Ties Further

Beijing, Dec. 3 (Jiji Press)--Visiting senior officials of Japan's two governing parties and executives of the Communist Party of China agreed on the need on Thursday to further improve relations between the two countries. They reached the agreement at the first dialogue between the two Asian nations' ruling parties in six years and 10 months. Participants included Sadakazu Tanigaki, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Yoshihisa Inoue, secretary-general of Komeito, the coalition partner of the LDP, and Wang Jiarui, former head of the International Department of the CPC's Central Committee and now deputy head of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Tanigaki said in a keynote speech that the coalition of the LDP and Komeito is ready to firmly back up the Japanese government's efforts to mend fences with China. Cooperation for the development of natural resources in the East China Sea is extremely important, he said, stressing that the two countries should resume joint gas development talks in the sea, with the aim of producing concrete results as a symbol of their mutually beneficial strategic partnership. Wang, in his speech, said that China is eager to solidify moves toward better relations and try to open a new chapter in bilateral exchanges, while cautioning Japan over history and maritime issues. He proposed that the Japanese coalition officials and CPC executives issue a joint statement to show their common understanding, saying that he wants to demonstrate to the international society their confidence and determination to develop the bilateral relations. Japan and China last held a joint ruling party meeting in February 2009, in Tokyo. But no such meeting had taken place since then as the bilateral relationship became strained partly because of Japan's nationalization of some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, also claimed by China, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The Shinto shrine honors Class-A war criminals among the war dead and is thus regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by China and other Asian nations. During their visit to China in March, Tanigaki and Inoue agreed with Wang to resume the bilateral ruling party dialogue within this year and hold the dialogue every year even when the two countries' relations are bad. At Thursday's meeting, Tanigaki said that Japan and China should continue frank discussions to keep their relations stable in the long term, calling on the two countries to step up economic cooperation and work together to tackle the graying of society and the falling number of children, a serious challenge for both of them. Komeito's Inoue underscored the importance of bilateral cooperation in such areas as energy saving, environmental protection and tourism exchanges. The ruling party dialogue will continue until Friday. Tanigaki and Inoue arrived in Qingdao, eastern China, the first destination of their ongoing China trip, on Wednesday and moved on to Beijing on Thursday. They will return home on Saturday END