Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao have agreed to continue to hold talks and cooperate over human rights issues, including the situation in Tibet, a Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
The agreement on human rights talks is contained in a joint press statement issued Thursday, which lists issues of common understanding for steadily implementing the key statement the two leaders signed the previous day on promoting "strategic, mutually beneficial relations."
It paves the way for the resumption of a Japan-China dialogue on human rights issues that was suspended in January 2000 after Japan and the United States urged Beijing to improve the rights situation in China at the United Nations.