China and Japan amicably wrapped up their first high-level trade and economic talks yesterday by pledging greater overall cooperation -- but left the touchy issue of gas exploration in the East China Sea unresolved.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) hailed the two-day meeting as "successful" and the two sides issued a joint statement promising to strengthen efforts to form a regional free-trade zone, promote energy efficiency and improve protection of intellectual property rights.
They also agreed to participate in an anti-global warming framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol, and cooperate on measures to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and smuggling.
"It's clear China and Japanese relations have taken another step forward, especially in the areas of trade and commerce," Wen told Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and four other Cabinet officials at the Zhongnanhai compound, where Chinese leaders live and work.
The discussions, modeled after similar dialogues China holds with the US and the EU, were aimed at strengthening ties between the two longtime rivals for regional influence. They bring together the largest number of Cabinet officials from the two countries since they opened diplomatic ties 35 years ago.
Although the meetings mark a new willingness to move beyond divisive disputes that have chilled relations over the past decade, there were still no breakthroughs in Japan's chief issue -- China's exploitation of a gas field that straddles a contested part of the East China Sea. So far, they have held 11 unsuccessful rounds of talks on the dispute.
Claims to the gas deposits came to the fore in 2005 after Chinese crews began drilling at a field known in Chinese as Chunxiao. Though the drill site is not in a disputed area, the field straddles the contested demarcation line and Japan worries that oil reserves in the area might be sucked dry.
China has rejected a proposal from Japan to jointly develop the fields, which both nations hope to exploit in their drive to feed their fuel-hungry economies.
No significant progress was made in talks between foreign ministers on Saturday, so Komura brought up the issue again in his meeting with Wen, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said.
"Strong political leadership from the Chinese side is needed to make a breakthrough," Sakaba said. "Without concrete instructions from the top leaders ... we cannot make a breakthrough."
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