Japan's Ishiba, China's Xi agree to establish 'mutually beneficial' relations

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to foster “mutually beneficial” and “stable” relations during their first in-person talks.

After the Lima meeting, held on the sidelines of this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit, Ishiba also said he told Xi that Japan was “extremely concerned” about the country's increasingly aggressive military maneuvers. China.

“There are many differences of opinion between Japan and China. But despite these differences, I agree with President Xi to continue to have more meetings,” Ishiba told reporters.

Xi's last face-to-face talks with a Japanese prime minister were a year ago. The two sides agreed to hold more negotiations at various levels, including reciprocal foreign ministerial visits and a high-level economic dialogue between the two countries, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their talks in Lima, Peru, November 15, 2024. (Pool photo)(Kyodo)

China continues to conduct aggressive naval and air activities near a Japanese-controlled island, as well as around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, to assert its territorial claims.

A Chinese military plane entered Japanese airspace for the first time in August, and Japanese public opinion toward China deteriorated after a Japanese schoolboy was stabbed to death the following month in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Ishiba said he had urged Xi to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and that the Chinese leader had promised to do so for “all foreigners.”

According to China's Foreign Ministry, Xi reiterated that Japan should face its history and properly handle sensitive issues such as the future of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

Despite long-standing tensions over wartime history, territory and many other issues, the Japanese and Chinese governments recognized that a reduction in tensions would serve their shared strategic interests.

As he did with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Laos in October, Ishiba confirmed with Xi the policy direction that has served as the foundation of bilateral relations since it was agreed by Tokyo and Beijing in 2008.

Xi said China was ready to cooperate with Japan to build a “constructive and stable relationship”, while noting that the relationship between the two countries had “significance beyond the bilateral dimension”, according to the agency of official Chinese press Xinhua.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meet in Lima, Peru, November 15, 2024. (Pool photo)(Kyodo)

The meeting between Ishiba and Xi came as the new US administration of President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take a much tougher line on China, which has a history of seeking closer ties with other countries, including Japan, in such circumstances.

Trump, who decisively won the Nov. 5 presidential election, is quickly filling senior positions in his second administration with those seen as staunch loyalists and prominent hawks on China.

Meanwhile, Ishiba's grip on power is not secure, although he was re-elected this week by Parliament as Japan's prime minister following a setback in the general election that saw his ruling party and its junior coalition partner lose their majority in the House of Representatives.

Ishiba called early elections after being narrowly chosen to lead the Liberal Democratic Party and taking office as prime minister on October 1.

During his meeting with Xi, which lasted about 35 minutes, Ishiba also asked China to remain committed to its promise to resume seafood imports from Japan.

In September, China announced it would “gradually” restart Japanese seafood imports after imposing a blanket ban about a year earlier on the release of treated radioactive water from the nuclear power plant in Japan into the ocean. Fukushima, broken down.

Before the ban, China was the largest importer of Japanese seafood.

Ishiba said Xi himself was referring to China's commitment to a gradual recovery and emphasizing that this fact “carries a lot of weight.” But he added that the timing of the restart was still undecided.

It also revealed that Xi raised Japan's request for the rapid resumption of Japanese beef and rice exports to China, without elaborating. According to a senior Japanese official, Xi said this issue should continue to be discussed between their respective authorities.

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