Chinese Army Vessels to Visit Japan in May

Chinese military ships are likely to make their first-ever visit to Japanese ports in May, media said on Sunday --a move aimed at broader defence ties between the two Asian neighbours, whose relations are sometimes strained.

Quoting diplomatic sources, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said they were expected to reach a final agreement on the visit during high-level security talks in Tokyo on Monday.

Under the agreement, an unspecified number of Chinese People's Liberation Army vessels would dock at a Tokyo pier for several days in May, the sources were quoted as saying.

The May visit is envisioned as the start of a series of exchanges between the militaries of both countries designed to improve relations between Japan and its Asian neighbour.

A reciprocal visit to Chinese ports by Japanese naval vessels is planned for next year and included in the agreement.

The two nations are even considering holding joint naval exercises sometime in the future, the sources were quoted by the Nikkei as saying.

The visit by the Chinese vessels was agreed late in 2000 in talks between Chinese premier Zhu Rongji and then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and was originally set to take place last year.

But plans were derailed when relations soured due to disagreements over a Japanese history text and current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial visit to a Tokyo shrine to war dead, in which some convicted war criminals are also enshrined.

(China Daily March 18, 2002)