Japan, China to set up leaders' hotline

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081024/afp/081024112100asiapacificnews.html


BEIJING (AFP) - Tokyo and Beijing agreed Friday to establish a hotline between their leaders to build mutual trust, in Prime Minister Taro Aso's first meeting as Japanese leader with his Chinese counterparts.

Aso agreed in separate talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao to use the hotline "to conduct frequent and timely exchanges of opinion," the Japanese government said in a statement.

Aso, a former foreign minister who has boasted of his record as a diplomat to show his experience in managing Tokyo's difficult relations with its Asian neighbours, was speaking in Beijing ahead of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

"It's important to create a situation where top leaders can communicate any time," said Aso, who succeeded Yasuo Fukuda as prime minister a month ago.


Aso, who is bracing for a tough election at home, was hoping to use the ASEM summit to show off his foreign policy credentials, as his notoriously sharp tongue has been known to rile Japan's Asian neighbours in the past.

Tokyo has had especially difficult relations with China and the two Koreas due largely to Tokyo's wartime occupation of both countries.




Relations hit rock bottom during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi due to the former leader's visits to a controversial war shrine.

But China and Japan have since been working to build stronger relations and Chinese Premier Wen spoke optimistically about their ties ahead of Aso's visit.

Chinese state media reported that Wen said he was glad to meet Aso Friday and quoted Hu as saying China was ready to work with Japan to improve ties.

One of the thorny issues discussed in Friday's talks was food safety, officials said, without providing details.

A Japanese woman recently fell ill after eating frozen Chinese beans in the latest incident involving tainted food from China.

Aso also met with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in Beijing early Friday to discuss a mooted three-way summit including China by the end of the year, according to a Japanese foreign ministry official.

The three countries had been arranging a summit for September in the western Japanese city of Kobe, but the plan was scrapped when Fukuda abruptly resigned over low public support.

Fukuda, who was known for his conciliatory views towards other Asian nations, had previously held a series of summits with Chinese leaders.

Aso and Lee also discussed North Korea, including six-party talks to persuade Pyongyang to get rid of its nuclear weapons and the North's abduction of Japanese citizens during the 1970s and '80s to train its spies.

Aso credits himself with helping repair ties with Beijing during his 2005-2007 tenure as foreign minister through talks with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of international meetings.

However, he never visited China as foreign minister and caused controversy with a series of remarks, including saying in 2005 that Beijing "is becoming a considerable threat" to Japan because of its rising military spending.

Aso is under domestic pressure to call an election as soon as possible, with the opposition hoping for a landmark victory buoyed by polls suggesting a majority of voters would back the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.