Xi, Abe meet in Jakarta on China-Japan ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping (Front R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Front L) held a meeting at the request of the Japanese side Wednesday afternoon on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit in Indonesia's capital city. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

JAKARTA, April 22 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a meeting at the request of the Japanese side Wednesday afternoon on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit in Indonesia's capital city.

As the general principle for handling the China-Japan ties, Xi stressed the need to strictly follow the spirit of the four political documents reached between them, so as to ensure the bilateral relations develop on a right track.

The four documents refer to the China-Japan Joint Statement inked in 1972, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1978, the China-Japan Joint Declaration of 1998 and a joint statement on advancing strategic and mutually-beneficial relations in a comprehensive way that was signed in 2008.

It was the second meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders since November last year, when Xi and Abe met on the sidelines of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing. That meeting took place after the two countries reached a four-point agreement to improve bilateral ties, in which the two sides agreed to resume political, diplomatic and security dialogue while acknowledging different positions on the Diaoyu Islands.