14th Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Tokyo with boosting ties in focus

The 14th Beijing-Tokyo Forum wrapped up Monday in Tokyo, with experts, former officials and private sector representatives from China and Japan discussing key issues affecting bilateral relations in order to enhance ties. 

The forum this year focused on the theme of "Deepening mutual trust and cooperation, sharing responsibility for peace and development in Asia and the world, and exploring the practical significance of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan."

The 14th Beijing-Tokyo Forum wraps up in Tokyo on Monday, October 15, 2018. [Photo: people.com.cn]

More than 100 guests from political, business, academic and media circles of the two countries held discussions on bilateral relations, political mutual trust, economic and trade cooperation, security assurance, media responsibility, innovation and other major issues.

Xu Lin, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office of China, said at the opening ceremony of the forum that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship as well as the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, and the two anniversaries provided a lot of precious inspirations for developing the China-Japan ties.

The most important one of the inspirations is that the two sides should stick to peace, friendship and cooperation in developing bilateral ties, he said.

Yasuo Fukuda, former Japanese prime minister, said that the world order including economic globalization suffered turbulences, and as Asian countries including China and Japan have achieved development under the current world order, China and Japan should work together to shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding and improving the world order which is in the interests of Asia and even the world.

The forum also adopted the Tokyo Consensus in which the two sides agreed to jointly safeguard regional peace, prosperity, stability and development and enhance bilateral and multilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as boosting people-to-people exchanges to promote continued improvement and development of bilateral ties. 

Beijing-Tokyo Forum was launched by China Daily and non-profit Japanese organization Genron NPO in 2005. The forum was cosponsored by China International Publishing Group and Genron NPO since 2015.

The forum, held alternately in Beijing and Tokyo, aims to improve bilateral relationship and deepen mutual understanding between China and Japan.