China, Japan Seek To Improve Ties As Xi, Abe Meet

HANGZHOU, China, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -5th Sep,2016) - China's leader Xi Jinping and Japan's Shinzo Abe sought to reset their countries' troubled relationship Monday at their first meeting in over a year, with the Japanese prime minister calling China an "important friend".

The Asian giants have been at loggerheads over territorial disputes and historical animosity, but Xi said they should "put aside disruptions", the official news agency Xinhua said. Their ties were "troubled by complications at times", it cited the Chinese president as saying, but they should seek to return to normal development for the sake of regional peace and stability.

For his part Abe described China as "an important friend of Japan's since long ago". "We need to look at the big picture and work to improve relations," he told reporters after the meeting. The tone of the two leaders' comments after a G20 summit in Hangzhou was a marked improvement on the last time they met on Chinese soil, on the sidelines of an APEC gathering in 2014, when they could barely conceal their mutual distaste.