BEIJING (Kyodo) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a congratulatory message to Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, state-run media reported Wednesday, following his election in parliament the previous day.
Xi said in the message sent Tuesday he wants to promote “strategic and mutually beneficial” bilateral relations and strive to build constructive and stable ties, China Central Television reported.
Calling China and Japan “neighbors separated by a strip of water,” Xi said the two countries should “follow the path of peaceful coexistence, friendship for all generations, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development” for the sake of the fundamental interests of their peoples, according to the CCTV report.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang also congratulated Ishiba on Tuesday, according to the report, saying in a message that the two countries should strengthen mutual trust and cooperation.
When Ishiba last Friday won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that China hopes for stable ties with Japan.
While the two countries last month agreed on the gradual lifting of China’s ban on Japanese marine products, tensions remain over such issues as the recent stabbing death of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen and the detention of Japanese citizens allegedly involved in spying activities.
China’s Xi congratulates Ishiba on being elected Japan’s new PM
