Japan foreign minister to visit China

Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will pay an official visit to China from Friday to Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday.

Hua told a routine press briefing that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Kishida will hold talks and exchange views on China-Japan relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

China and Japan are important neighbors, and healthy and stable bilateral relations are not only in the interests of both countries and the two peoples, but also are of important significance for the peace and stability as well as development in the region, Hua said.

She said currently relations between the two countries saw improvement but also faces challenges, calling on Japan to meet China halfway and make concrete efforts for sustainable, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.

It is hoped that Japan would abide by the four political documents reached between the two countries in 1972, 1978, 1998 and 2008 as well as the four-point principled agreement reached in November 2014, and handle relevant issues in appropriate manner, according to Hua.