A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a regular
press conference on Thursday that Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing is likely to meet Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka
Machimura on the sidelines of the Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) for Foreign Ministers in Kyoto, Japan from May 6 to 7.
"To the best of my knowledge, there should be such
arrangements," said Qin Gang.
Qin stressed that the two sides should create
proper conditions as well as the right atmosphere for higher-level
exchanges.
Li's meeting follows that in Indonesia over the
weekend between President Hu Jintao
and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at a time of tension
in Sino-Japanese relations.
Protests have been running high in Japan's
neighboring countries including China since the Japanese government
approved new middle-school textbooks early this month that are
perceived as distorting history and whitewashing over wartime
atrocities.
As for the disputes on boundary demarcations in the
East China Sea, Qin said China hopes for an early round of
consultation with Japan on the issue, noting all questions
concerned by the two sides could be raised during the
consultation.
Tokyo recently initiated procedures to grant
Japanese firms the right to conduct test drilling for potential gas
and oil fields in disputed areas in the East China Sea.
The Foreign Ministry condemned the move as a
provocation to China's rights and the norms of international
relations, calling on the two sides to solve the question through
consultation and put aside disputes to engage in joint
exploitation.
Qin told reporters yesterday that the chief US
envoy on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue said the US is willing
to stick to the six-party talks for a peaceful settlement of the
nuclear issue through dialogue.
He quoted US Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, who visited China in the last two days, as saying
that the US could "do many things" if the six-party talks were
restarted.
Hill arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after talks in
Seoul with South Korean officials to discuss resuming the six-party
talks. Vice foreign ministers Dai
Bingguo, Yang Jiechi and Wu
Dawei met with Hill separately on Tuesday afternoon.
The Chinese officials reiterated in the meetings
that the twin goals of restarting the six-party talks and
maintaining peaceful negotiations to keep the peninsula free from
nuclear weapons are in line with each party's common interests, Qin
said.
He said China also urged the parties involved to
further demonstrate flexibility, patience and sincerity to create
favorable conditions for restarting the six-party talks at an early
date.
Qin said both Chinese and US officials agreed that
"maintaining the long-term healthy stable development of their
relations is very important and accords with our common
interests."
Beijing is the second stop of Hill's three-nation
tour that took him to Japan on Wednesday.
Qin also hailed the newly launched Sino-US
cooperation on container security as "an important part of the two
countries' anti-terrorism cooperation."
A proposal for keeping containers secure before
departure from China to the US was launched in Shanghai Wednesday,
which was aimed at preventing terrorists from hiding weapons of
mass-destruction.
"Such cooperation is an important part of the
Sino-US anti-terrorism cooperation since the two countries
established a middle- and long-term anti-terrorism exchange and
cooperation mechanism in 2001," Qin said.
According to the proposal, US custom officers
posted in Shanghai and Shenzhen will lodge lists of suspicious
containers, along with their reasoning, to Chinese customs. The two
sides will then exchange views on suspicious containers, and if
they agree, Chinese customs will make a check of the containers
before their departure. Chinese customs can also post officers in
US ports.
Qin said that President Hu will attend the 60th
anniversary ceremony for the victory of Russia's Great Patriotic
War in Moscow on May 8 and 9 at the invitation of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
He also announced that Samoan Prime Minister
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi will visit from May 8 to 15.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency April 29,
2005)