On the afternoon of April 30, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the Great Hall of the People.

"Since my visit to Japan in May last year, related parties on the two sides have made every effort to implement the consensus and decisions agreed upon during the visit, and have attained important progress in promoting the strategic and mutually-beneficial relations between China and Japan," Hu told Aso. "These achievements have not come easy and should be cherished by us," said Hu.

Hu said it is a set policy of the Chinese government to push forward China-Japan bilateral strategic and mutually beneficial ties in an all-round way. China is ready to make joint efforts with Japan to abide by the principles and spirits of the four Sino-Japanese political documents and properly settle existing problems and disputes between the two countries, especially historical issues. He urged both sides to increasingly cement the political foundation and ensure healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.

Hu noted that as the global financial crisis spreads, trade between China and Japan has declined obviously. He urged the two sides to take effective measures to put bilateral trade and investment back on the track of stable growth as soon as possible. China and Japan must step up information exchange and policy coordination, explore new areas of cooperation and exploit the full potential of their cooperation. They must particularly ensure successes in cooperation on energy-saving and environmental protection, information and communications and high-tech industries, said Hu. He noted personnel and culture exchanges have an important and far-reaching impact on the development of Sino-Japanese relations. He urged the two countries to make full use of the existing channels and mobilize every resource available to raise bilateral personnel and cultural exchanges, especially the exchanges between youths in general and young officials in particular, to a new height. In multilateral areas, China and Japan should focus on advancing cooperation in East Asia so that the sub-region will collectively respond to global challenges such as the current financial crisis, he said. The two countries must further enhance their coordination and cooperation in such regional mechanisms as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), the East Asia summit and the China, Japan plus ROK format, so that together they can promote peace, stability and development in Asia and the world at large, Hu said.

Aso said since Hu's successful visit to Japan in May last year, the two sides have made important progress in implementing the projects agreed upon during the visit. He expressed Japan's appreciation of the fact that the two countries have maintained frequent exchanges of visits by and good communications between state leaders. Japanese and Chinese leaders have also met for many times in bilateral and multilateral occasions to exchange opinions on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, said Aso. Japan and China are close neighbors geographically. Sound cooperation in political and economic fields and the continuous advancement of the strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between them have laid a solid foundation for the future of their relations, said the Japanese prime minister. Aso said it is Japan's wish that the two countries will, by proceeding from the overall development of bilateral ties, continue with the close communication at high level, strengthen cooperation in various fields, step up coordination in coping with the international financial and economic crisis, and promote youth exchanges, in a bid to push forward bilateral ties.

On the historical issues, Aso said that as expounded in the official statements by Japanese prime ministers in 1995 and 2005, the Japanese government will face up to history and keep oriented to the future. "That position has not changed and will never change," he said.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cui Tiankai attended the meeting.