Premier Li Keqiang held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Dujiangyan city, Southwest China's Sichuan province on Dec 25, and the two sides agreed to jointly further advance cooperation in various fields.?

"It is hoped that Japan could meet China halfway and create favorable atmosphere and conditions for more high-level exchanges between the two sides," said Premier Li.?

He said that both China and Japan are major economies in the world and major trading partners of each other, and the two sides should cooperate further in areas such as securities, life insurance, medical care, and investment.

The eighth China-Japan-Republic of Korea (ROK) leaders' meeting reached a great success and sent positive signals of maintaining multilateralism, free trade and safeguarding regional peace and stability, he added.

"We are willing to work with other parties to promote the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020 as scheduled and accelerate negotiations on trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) among China, Japan and the ROK," said Li.?

Abe said that Japan is willing to maintain close high-level exchanges with China and strengthen cooperation in areas such as dealing with aging, finance, tourism, environmental protection, disaster reduction, medical care, scientific and technological innovation and third-party markets.

After their talks, Li and Abe visited the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project.

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also met with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on the same day, and the two sides agreed to maintain the momentum of improvement in bilateral ties.