Since 2015 China-Japan relations have maintained the momentum of improvement which started at the end of 2014. Upon invitation, President Xi Jinping met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the margins of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the Asian-African Summit. He attended and gave an important speech at the China-Japan Friendship Exchange Meeting. Premier Li Keqiang met Prime Minister Abe during the China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit Meeting in 2015 and during the Asia-Europe Meeting in 2016. During the G20 Hangzhou Summit in September 2016 President Xi Jinping had another meeting with Prime Minister Abe. The two sides resumed contacts at government, parliament and party levels in an orderly way. Three rounds of high-level political dialogue were held and exchanges and cooperation in various areas were steadily pushed forward. However, complex and sensitive factors still remain in bilateral relations. In response to Japan's negative moves concerning historical and maritime territory issues, China urges Japan to abide by the four political documents and the four-point principled agreement on bilateral relations, properly manage and control disputes and conflicts, and avoid creating obstacles to the improvement of bilateral relations.  

Since the end of 2014 defence exchanges between the two countries have gradually resumed and developed. In November 2015 the Chinese and Japanese defence ministers met during the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting. The defence chiefs of the two countries have met several times on other multilateral occasions. In 2016 the defence ministries of the two countries conducted working-level exchanges. Since 2015, defence ministries of the two countries have held two expert panel consultations on the establishment of air and maritime contact mechanisms, with consensus reached on most matters.  

5. China has continued developing friendly and cooperative relations with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with enhanced political mutual trust, strengthened economic and trade relations, closer people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and enlarged defence cooperation, so as to jointly promote peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.