China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Takeo Akiba, special adviser to the Japanese Cabinet and secretary general of Japan’s National Security Secretariat, held consultations under the China-Japan high-level political dialogue mechanism in Beijing on Monday.

Noting that China-Japan relations are at a critical stage of improvement, Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said the two sides should follow the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, stick to the right direction of improving and developing bilateral relations, and build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era.

Wang said the Japanese side should establish an objective and rational understanding of China, honor its political commitment on the Taiwan question and earnestly safeguard the political foundation of China-Japan relations, urging the Japanese side to take concrete actions to implement the important consensus of “being each other’s cooperation partners rather than threats,” and promote the steady and long-term development of bilateral ties.

The two sides reiterated that they will abide by the principles and consensus set out in the four political documents between China and Japan and commit to comprehensively advancing the strategic relationship of mutual benefit between the two sides, reaching agreement to maintain high-level intercourse, dialogue and exchanges in various fields, and send more positive signals to the outside world.

The two sides believed that China and Japan, as two important neighbors with development closely linked to each other and highly complementary economies, should not and will not decouple, pledging to jointly promote the healthy development of economic and trade cooperation and the stable and smooth production and supply chain.

On the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the two sides agreed to accelerate the follow-up and implementation of the bilateral political consensus.

Stressing that China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development, pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and is a major country with the best record of peace and security, Wang said China will continue to uphold fairness and justice to prevent war or chaos in the region.

It is hoped that all parties will jointly resist non-regional forces inciting confrontation in the area and take concrete actions to safeguard regional peace and stability, Wang added.