Ties face new opportunities: Hu

TOKYO: Sino-Japanese relations are facing new opportunities for further development, President Hu Jintao said in the Japanese capital yesterday.

In a written statement issued at the airport upon his arrival in Tokyo, Hu said both China and Japan are important countries in Asia and in the world, and "the development of a long-term, stable and good neighborly friendship between China and Japan is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples".

The Chinese president's arrival kicked off a five-day "warm spring" trip to Japan, aimed at boosting strategic and mutually beneficial relations between the two nations.