Japan pledged to “actively participate” in China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as the two nations on Friday shed their bitterness over territorial disputes and vowed to promote economic cooperation during talks held between the leaders of Asia’s two biggest economies on improving ties amid their trade friction with the US.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is on a rare visit to Beijing, held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang and called on President Xi Jinping.
The multi-billion dollar BRI project has evoked global concerns over growing indebtedness of small countries to China.
The two countries have agreed to create a “new framework” to jointly move ahead with infrastructure projects in third nations and strengthen a wide range of cooperation ranging from finance to innovation, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported after Abe’s meeting with Xi.