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Prime Minister Meets with Premier of China
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori met with Zhu Rongji, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. Premier Zhu was on an official visit to Japan (October 12-17). Following a welcoming ceremony at Akasaka Palace in the morning, the two leaders held talks at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
The summit lasted more than two hours, well over the scheduled hour and a half. The two leaders confirmed the importance of increased mutual understanding and of confidence building in order to firmly ground the friendly and cooperative partnership enunciated in the Japan-China Joint Declaration of 1998, issued on the occasion of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan, and agreed to continue to build cooperative relations. They also agreed to accelerate establishment of framework for mutual prior notification of the activities of marine research vessels in each other's territorial waters. Premier Zhu praised Japan's official development assistance to China, said that China would step up public relations efforts to inform the public of Japan's ODA, and expressed thanks for the provision of special yen loans. There was also agreement on expanding security dialogue and defense exchange, especially mutual visits by naval vessels.
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