President Li Xiaolin met with YOKOI YUTAKA, new Japanese Ambassador to China on May 25. Vice President Song Jingwu attended the meeting.
President Li Xiaolin first extended her warm welcome to Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA for his visit in the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) as soon as he took his new post. President Li said that since the CPAFFC was founded in 1954, it had been working for developing the friendly exchanges and cooperation with the peoples all over the world and had established relationship of friendly cooperation with nearly 500 non-governmental organizations and institutions in 157 countries. President Li also said, the people-to-people friendly exchange with Japan is one of the important tasks of CPAFFC. Whether the bilateral ties develop stably or difficultly, the CPAFFC would insist on the people-to-people friendship of the two countries and actively make great contributions to enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship, and furthering the healthy and stable bilateral relations.
President Li said, China and Japan are close neighbors with homologous culture, the two countries’ economy are complementary to each other. Since both of the countries are all of the important influence in the region and the world, the cooperation between China and Japan is the most conformed to the basic interests of the two countries and their peoples. Although the bilateral ties are still difficult and fragile, they have chances to be improved. Next year marks the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. She hoped that the both sides would take this as an opportunity to further develop the pragmatic exchanges in various fields and improve the bilateral relations. At last, President Li Xiaolin wished Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA would have a good start for his work as Ambassador in China.
Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA thanked President Li Xiaolin for taking her time to meet him. He agreed with President Li’s opinion on the bilateral relations and the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. He said, the two countries’ relations faced some difficulties in the past years, but the exchanges in the fields of humanity and personnel still keep forward, which the people-to-people exchanges played an important role. In the long term, keeping the friendly relations between the two countries is the best and the only one choice. Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA also said that he felt a great responsibility as the Japanese Ambassador and he would like to grasp the opportunity of the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, work together with the CPAFFC and other relevant Chinese organizations to promote the exchanges and cooperation in different fields between the two countries, and to make efforts on realizing the friendship from generation to generation of the two countries.
Cheng Haibo, Deputy Director General of the Department of Japanese Affairs, ISHIKAWA HIROSHI, Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China, YAMAMOTO YASUSHI, Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China, attended the meeting.
