Under the framework of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which connects diverse countries and regions with development potential, China's efforts in addressing Asia's massive infrastructure needs will go a long way to boosting Asia's prosperity, said Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The second Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation is held in Beijing from April 25 to 27.
The politician said in a written interview with Xinhua in Tokyo recently that he hopes to deliver Japan's thinking on the Belt and Road Initiative to China through the forum.
Nikai said that he has long been paying high attention to the initiative. "As Prime Minister Abe has said, the initiative which spans from east to west and links diverse countries and regions within it, has potential for development," he said.
Talking about the cooperation between China and Japan in a third-party market, Nikai said that when Abe visited China last October, officials and civilians from both countries gathered together and had a heated discussion, and matched according to their business intentions. A number of letters of intent have been signed and the two governments are following up on the projects.
"The non-governmental cooperation between the two sides involves infrastructure, logistics, information technology and health care among other fields, which shows the extensiveness of Japan-China cooperation. It is more important that such cooperation conforms to international norms and the interests of a third country. We look forward to promoting the concrete implementation of cooperation projects of companies from both countries based on this view," he said.
In the unstable world economic situation, Japan and China should facilitate various forms of economic exchanges between them and promote the development of free and fair trade and investment, Nikai said.
It is also necessary to explore how the two countries can strengthen cooperation to promote regional and international prosperity, he added.
Nikai also said that Japan will this year host the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June, and that he looks forward to broad economic cooperation between Japan and China, as well as continuous promotion of multilateral cooperation in addition to strengthening bilateral cooperation in tourism and environmental protection. Enditem
