Year-End Deadline: Level Abe

year-end deadline: Xi told Abe, I am willing to maintain close communication to raise Sino-Japanese ties to a new level, according to The Japan Times. Abe pledged to make Xi's state visit to Japan meaningful, the Japanese source added. On the first day of Abe's three-day visit to China, the Japanese and Chinese leaders also reaffirmed their cooperation in achieving North Korea's complete denuclearization, a Japanese government source said, with a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for progress in denuclearization negotiations with the United States looming. ; On Xi's planned visit to Japan, Abe told the Chinese president at the outset of their meeting in Beijing, We want to build a relationship that is suitable for a new era for Japan and China. RELATED STORIESChina to cut tariffs on imports including pork, consumer and tech items from Jan. 1Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea gather with eye on threat from North Korea Japan and South Korea leaders vow to keep talking, but no progress made on wartime labor The prime minister also told Xi that Hong Kong, rocked by pro-democracy protests over the past several months, should continue to be free and open. The meeting between Abe and Xi, the first since June on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Osaka summit, was designed to lay the groundwork for Xi's state visit amid a recent thaw in bilateral ties. In a press briefing after the Xi-Abe meeting, Otaka Masato spokesman for the Japanese minister of foreign affairs said Abe urged China to continue its self-restraint over Hong Kong and expressed hope for an early resolution of the situation. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.