Japan's Abe seeking to mend ties with China

Beijing, Oct 7: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a pragmatist willing to engage with neighbour China regardless of past animosities, an aide to the Japanese leader said on the eve of an ice-breaking summit.

Abe's meeting tomorrow with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top officials will mark the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Beijing in five years, after relations soured under Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

''The change of government gives an opportunity for both sides to build a new relationship regardless of what has transpired up to now,'' the aide, who asked not to be named, told reporters in Beijing.

He repeated Abe's ambiguous stance on whether he will visit Yasukuni Shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Koizumi's visits to the Tokyo shrine were a major source of friction with China, whose leaders saw it as a sign that Japan had not atoned for its invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

''Mr Abe thinks this issue is a matter of his heart,'' the aide said. But he added: ''Mr Abe is not a nationalist or hawkish.

He is a realist.'' The resumption of high level talks between the northeast Asian economic giants, whose relationship is also weighed down by feuds over energy resources and disputed territory, has become all the more crucial since North Korea said this week it planned to test a nuclear device.

The aide would not comment on whether Japan felt China, a traditional communist ally of North Korea, was doing enough to persuade Pyongyang not to go through with the test, but said the issue would be an important component of tomorrow's talks.

Abe will fly to Seoul for talks on Monday, where North Korea will also top the agenda.

The aide also hinted that if the meetings in China went well, Abe and Hu could meet again in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi.

Abe hoped to have ''candid and heart-to-heart discussions'' and was undaunted by the weight of mutual mistrust, the aide said.

''When the challenge is more difficult, he becomes more patient.''

REUTERS

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