On November 19, 2009, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met respectively with Japanese Speaker of the House of Representatives Takahiro Yokomichi and President of the House of Councillors Satsuki Eda in Tokyo.
Yang first conveyed the cordial greetings and best wishes from Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, to the two speakers. Yang made positive comments on China-Japan relations, pointing out that after the new Diet was formed after the Aug. 30 general election of Japan, leaders of the two countries have met on many occasions to reach important consensus on strategic and mutually beneficial relations. The bilateral ties have got off to a good start and are facing fresh opportunities of development. A main purpose of his visit is to discuss with the Japanese side how to open up new prospect for the relations under the new situation. China is ready to work with the Japanese government, Diet and political parties as well as people from all walks of life to seize current favorable opportunities and push China-Japan strategic and mutually beneficial relations for even greater progress.
Yang said the Shanghai Expo, which is to open next May, is a good channel of friendly communication between China and the rest of the world including Japan. The Japanese Diet has set up a cross-party alliance of parliamentarians to support the Shanghai Expo and has offered assistance and support to the Chinese side in this regard, which China appreciates. China is ready to work with Japan to make full use of the Shanghai Expo as an opportunity to push bilateral humanities exchanges for new development.
The two speakers said they are glad to see the frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries and new outcomes achieved in bilateral strategic and mutually beneficial relations since the new Diet was formed. Both countries have maintained close parliamentary exchanges and the regular exchange mechanism between the NPC of China and the Japanese Diet has been furthered consolidated. China and Japan should not only closely cooperate on bilateral issues, but also work together to settle regional, international and global issues to further build a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship. They emphasized that to maintain and enhance the exchanges between the two legislative bodies are of great significance to promoting bilateral ties and the Japanese Diet is ready to exert every effort to contribute to boosting bilateral ties. They also said Japan is actively preparing for the participation of Shanghai Expo and wishes the Expo a great success.
Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cui Tiankai was present at the meetings.