Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and Chinese President Jiang Zemin confirmed Tuesday that the two nations will cooperate to make the upcoming visit to Japan of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji a success.
During talks Monday between Kono and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, the two sides agreed that Zhu's visit should take place between Oct. 12 and Oct. 17.
Kono and Tang also agreed to the creation of a framework that would require each nation to give advance notice to the other of when their research vessels plan to enter each other's economic waters.
Kono had pointed out that recent Chinese naval activity within Japan's exclusive economic waters had led to the decision by a panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month to delay the extension of 17.2 billion yen in loans to Beijing.