State Councilor heads to G20 FM meeting in Japan

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will lead a delegation to the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting to be held in Nagoya, Japan, and pay an official visit to the country from Friday to Tuesday.

During the meeting, Wang will join discussions over issues including promotion of free trade and global governance, sustainable development, and Africa, and he will provide in-depth explanations of China's views and positions, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a news conference on Thursday.

Unilateralism and protectionism are seriously disrupting international order, and the global economy is facing increasing risks and uncertainty, Geng said, adding that China hopes the meeting will encourage all parties to strengthen their determination to safeguard multilateralism and cooperate to address global challenges.

During his visit, Wang will meet with Japanese leaders and hold talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

"We hope through the visit that both sides will conduct in-depth exchanges, build consensuses, manage differences, expand cooperation and work together to strengthen and maintain the momentum of the improvement of bilateral ties," Geng said.

Wang and Motegi will also launch a bilateral high-level mechanism to discuss people-to-people exchanges, and they will co-host the first meeting of the mechanism.

Participants of the meeting will discuss cooperation in areas including culture, education, sports, tourism and movies, and they will plan exchange programs for the next year, Geng said.

China hopes to work with Japan and make full use of the mechanism, promote mutual understanding and affinity between their peoples and consolidate bilateral ties, he said.

The nations launched the China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year in April and have agreed to organize exchange visits for 30,000 young people in the next five years. In addition, China Festival 2019, a two-day fair was held in Tokyo in September to present Chinese culture.

People-to-people exchanges "play a very special and important role" in enhancing bilateral ties, Geng said, adding that such exchanges have always been wide and deep.

As many as 12 million Chinese and Japanese people traveled between the two countries in 2018, and there are more than 250 pairs of friendly cities between the two countries, the spokesman said, adding that it is the hope of both peoples to further strengthen people-to-people exchanges.