Japan's FM Masahiko Koumura meets China FM Yang Jiechi
(1 Dec 2007) 1. Various of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi shaking hands with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura 2. Conference table 3. Yang 4. Wide of Japanese delegates at the meeting 5. Masahiko 6. Wide of the meeting 7. Chinese and Japanese national flags on table 8. Signing agreements 9. Yang signing agreements 10. Masahiko signing agreements 11. Pull out of Yang and Masahiko shaking hands 12. Pull out of Yang and Masahiko drinking champagne STORYLINE: China and Japan inaugurated talks on trade and economic issues on Saturday to bolster the recent warming in their long uneasy relations. The half-day of talks and a weekend of meetings bring together the countries' ministers holding foreign affairs, finance and economic portfolios to discuss a range of issues and are modelled on similar dialogues China holds with the US and EU. Only two modest agreements are expected. One provides for a 46.3 (b) billion yen (420 (m) million US dollar; 285 (m) million euro) loan to China to fund six environmental projects. The other is a treaty allowing the two countries' police and prosecutors to work directly, bypassing diplomatic intermediaries. But the discussions follow increasing steps towards agreement between the two sides after highly-divisive disputes over territory and gas resources in the East China Sea and amid tense rivalry for regional influence. In the past two weeks, the countries' prime ministers held an amiable meeting at a regional summit in Singapore and Chinese warships paid the communist country's first-ever port call in Japan. "We hope we can discuss future relations between our two nations and through mutual efforts promote more progress in relations between our two nations," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura said to his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, Saturday morning in a two-way meeting ahead of the afternoon's economic dialogue. Besides the two agreements, Japanese officials said they hoped to settle dates and other details for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's planned visit to China and a reciprocal trip to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao, perhaps during the cherry blossom season in April. Despite the apparent efforts to stress the positive, significant disputes persist. Decades of waxing and waning suspicions have flared in recent years as China asserts its growing economic, diplomatic and military power while Japan, the world's No. 2 economy, struggles to maintain its influence. Chief among Japan's concerns are China's continued exploitation of the Chunxiao gas field that straddles disputed waters in the East China Sea. The governments have held 11 rounds of talks on the issue, and though they have agreed to develop the field jointly, they have failed to settle on how to do so. Economic ties, which softened tense political relations, have begun to sour as Japanese companies complain that China is blocking their attempts to acquire Chinese firms. China, including Hong Kong is Japan's biggest trading partner but Japanese investment in China fell 30 percent last year, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In a sign of their shifting economic relations, the loan agreed to Saturday is the last Japan will provide under a development assistance program that lends money at low, non-commercial interest rates. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
