On March 19, 2011, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who was attending the 5th foreign ministers’ meeting of China, Japan and the ROK in Kyoto met with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

Yang first of all conveyed the sincere condolence of Chinese leaders to Japan hit by the massive earthquake and tsunami. He said that the Chinese people felt sad about the disasters. Many Chinese citizens in Japan also participated in the disaster relief and will go through the difficulties together with the Japanese people. He expressed gratitude to the Japanese government and people for their help to the disaster-hit Chinese citizens and facilitation for their evacuation. He hopes the Japanese side to continue with the help.

He said that Japan is a close neighbor of China. The Chinese side attaches great importance to the relations with Japan and always gives priority to China-Japan relations in its diplomatic strategy. We are willing to work with Japan to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, properly handle sensitive issues and take tangible measures of enhancing the strategic mutual trust, increasing mutual interest and improving the relations between the two peoples in order to promote the continuous development of China-Japan strategic and reciprocal relations.

He pointed out that China expects to step up cooperation with Japan on disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction and will continue to provide Japan with necessary help. He hopes that Japan terminates the nuclear leakage as soon as possible and informs China about the development of the incident in a timely, complete and accurate manner.

Takeaki Matsumoto extended sincere thanks for China’s condolence and support. He expressed will of continuing to work hard to take care of and help the Chinese citizens in Japan and strengthen the bilateral cooperation on disaster relief and prevention. He noted that Japan attaches great importance to the strategic and reciprocal relations with China and hopes the two sides strengthen high-level exchanges and cooperation in all fields and achieve fruitful results of bilateral relations in order to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China diplomatic relations next year. He also introduced Japan’s measures of coping with the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and said that Japan would disclose information in a timely, accurate and transparent manner.

The two sides also exchanged views on the situation of the Korean Peninsula.

On the same day, Yang met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan in Kyoto. The two leaders expressed support for Japan’s earthquake disaster relief and will of stepping up China-ROK bilateral relations and cooperation on regional and international issues.