China and Japan find common ground on the environment
First major meeting between the two Asian neighbours since leaders held talks last month
Chinese and Japanese officials agreed yesterday to step up cooperation on energy conservation and the environment during a major governmental meeting - the first since their leaders held talks last month.
The forum, attended by a total of 500 government and business officials, came as tensions seemed to be easing between Asia's two biggest economies, particularly in nonpolitical areas.
"Through our cooperation in the environment and energy conservation, I believe we will be able to add positive elements to political relations between the two countries," Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, told the one-day event in Beijing.
Xie, China's chief climate negotiator, said the two countries shouldered great responsibilities in the international community, and should promote technical cooperation and personal exchanges to strengthen mutual trust.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first meeting with President Xi Jinping on November 10 on the margins of a regional economic summit provided the impetus for Tokyo and Beijing to resume the forum, which had been held every year since 2006.
The gathering had been suspended after the event was held in Tokyo in 2012. Abe's visit a year ago to the Yasukuni war shrine, which is viewed by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, added even more tension to bilateral ties already strained over the ownership of the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands - known as the Senkakus in Japan - in the East China Sea.
The one-day event is being seen as a prelude to many more interactions between China and Japan expected in the months ahead.
Companies and government entities from the two countries are expected to sign about 40 agreements on environmental cooperation.
The Japanese delegation was headed by Yosuke Takagi, senior vice-minister of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Professor Hiroshi Amano, one of the three Japan-born scientists to win this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing efficient blue light-emitting diodes, also gave a speech.