Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi both congratulated US President George W. Bush yesterday on his re-election and said they were looking forward to better relations with Washington.
"Both China and the United States are great countries and share a wide range of common interests and basis for cooperation," Hu was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"I look forward to continuing to work together with you to further promote the development of the constructive cooperative relations between China and the United States" to benefit the people of the two countries and rest of the world, Hu said.
China and the US have made "significant progress in cooperation in various fields, bringing substantial benefits to both countries and playing a positive role in promoting peace and development in Asia Pacific and rest of the world," Hu was cited as saying by Xinhua.
Xinhua said Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong (
In Tokyo, Koizumi said he wants to build even closer ties with Washington in what he called Japan's "most important" diplomatic relationship.
Koizumi has staked his political future on strong support for Bush and the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"The president's re-election means that the American people trust his leadership," Koizumi said in a statement.
Koizumi said he hoped to strengthen ties with Bush.
"Building on the ties of trust and friendship, I want to promote stronger Japan-US relations," he said. "Japan's most important diplomatic relations are with the United States."
Earlier this year, Koizumi res-ponded to Washington's appeal for help in Iraq by deploying some 550 troops to Samawah on a humanitarian mission, despite public opposition at home.
Tokyo hasn't said whether the Japanese forces will stay in Iraq beyond the middle of next month. Without a formal extension, the aid mission would end.
But Bush's re-election alleviates pressure for Koizumi to consider pulling troops out of Iraq following the killing of a Japanese hostage by militants who had demanded that Japanese forces withdraw.
Japanese media called the results a plus for the two countries' warm trade relations.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS