PRESS RELEASE

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Japanese Prime Minister Abe and Chinese President Xi To Exchange Visits Next Year

June 11, 2017 (EIRNS)—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will likely make a state visit to China in the first half of 2018, succeeded by a reciprocal state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Japan in the second half of 2018, a Japanese government source told yesterday's Japan Times.

This is part of the process of strengthening relations between China and Japan. On June 5, Abe praised the Belt and Road Initiative, stating, "The One Belt, One Road initiative holds the potential to connect East and West as well as the diverse regions found in between." This emerging alliance of two of the world’s three largest economies, would further shift the acceleration of the building of infrastructure platforms and physical economic growth in Asia, and worldwide.

The June 8 Nikkei Asian Review reported that,

"Abe’s shift is linked to Tokyo’s carefully laid diplomatic plans. Japan wants Abe and Xi to meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in July. It also hopes to revive regular summits between Japan, China and South Korea. The timing is significant: 2017 is the 45th anniversary of the normalization of the countries’ diplomatic relations, and 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of their Treaty of Peace and Friendship."

This is further fortified by the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump in forging positive relations with both China’s Xi and Japan’s Abe.