Beijing, August 27th—Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with a delegation of female members of the National Diet of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. The delegation was headed by Tomomi Inada, Chief Deputy Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party and former Minister of Defense of Japan.

Song said that in June this year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe successfully met on the sidelines of the G20 Osaka Summit and reached an important ten-point consensus, which has charted the course for the development of bilateral relations. It is hoped that both sides will implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, and adhere to the four political documents between China and Japan and the spirit of the four-point principled agreement. Both sides should earnestly safeguard the political basis for relations between the two countries, properly handle sensitive issues, continuously expand mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly maintain an open world economy and free trade system, and build the China-Japan relations that fit the needs of the new era to inject more positive energy to the prosperity and development of the world.

Song said that the ruling party is the source of national policies and shoulders the important mission of leading the country's development direction. In the face of major changes unseen in a century, the ruling parties of the two countries should follow the trend, steer in the right direction, increase mutual trust, promote cooperation, and play a good political leading role for the sustained development of China-Japan relations on the right track. It is hoped that the two sides will continue to make good use of the platform of the exchange mechanism between the ruling parties of China and Japan and pool wisdom and strength to this end.

Inada said that the exchanges between the ruling parties have played an important role in pushing Japan-China relations back to the right track. Our visit is also to implement the consensus reached at the 8th Meeting of Japan-China Ruling Parties Exchange Mechanism. The ruling party of Japan is willing to continue to work with the CPC to strengthen exchanges and mutual trust, promote pragmatic cooperation in various fields, jointly deliver a positive message of upholding free trade and multilateralism and make unremitting efforts to push forward Japan-China relations.

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