Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) shakes hands with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua at a ceremony marking China's upcoming National Day in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 28, 2017. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)
TOKYO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended on Thursday a ceremony marking China's upcoming National Day at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.
The ceremony took place a day before China and Japan mark the 45th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties.
Cheng Yonghua, Chinese ambassador to Japan, made a briefing at the ceremony about the achievements made by China in recent years in economic development and other areas.
Such achievements have been making "every Chinese feel very proud," said Cheng.
He added that the relationship between China and Japan is being improved but is still facing some sensitive and complicated factors.
It is hoped that both sides could focus on the long-term and the larger interests to safeguard the political foundations for bilateral ties, and implement with concrete actions the important consensus that China and Japan are each other's cooperative partners rather than threats and shall support each other's peaceful development, said Cheng.
He urged the two sides to further enhance political mutual trust, properly control and address differences and promote bilateral relationship to develop in the right direction.
Abe, for his part, said that cooperation between Japan and China is not only important to both countries, but also indispensable to peace and prosperity of Asia and even the world.
He said he is willing to make efforts to promote the development of strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between Japan and China.
Some 2,000 people attended the ceremony, including government officials, lawmakers, friendly groups, overseas Chinese and employees of Chinese enterprises, among others.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a press briefing on Thursday that China welcomes Japanese leaders and high-level officials to attend the ceremony hosted by the Chinese embassy.
It is hoped that Japan could meet China halfway and take the 45th anniversary of normalization of bilateral ties as an opportunity to promote the improvement and development of bilateral relationship in the right direction, said Lu.
He urged the two sides to promote bilateral relationship in the spirit of taking history as a mirror while facing up to the future, abide by the principles defined in the four political documents and the four-point principled agreement, safeguard the political foundation of bilateral relationship and steadily carry out communications and cooperation.
