Japan, China welcome resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

Japan and China on Saturday welcomed the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry that Palestine and Israel have agreed to resume peace talks. In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan sincerely welcomes this announcement and will watch the continued coordination on this agreement. "Japan also highly commends the vigorous diplomatic efforts made by US President Barack Obama and Secretary Kerry toward reaching this agreement, and appreciates the role played by Jordan and the League of Arab States," Kishida said in a statement. "Japan strongly hopes that, upon this agreement, sincere dialogues and negotiations are conducted between both sides," he said. The minister also pledged Tokyo's continued support to dialogues between both sides as well as efforts by the US through actively promoting initiatives of the Japan-led project for creating a "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity" to develop agriculture and industry in the West Bank and the "Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development." On Friday, Kerry said in the Jordanian capital of Amman that they reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian sides. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are expected to meet in Washington as early as next week to work out final details of relaunching peace negotiations. The Middle East peace process has been stalled since October 2010. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying said China also welcomes the announcement and appreciates efforts made by relevant sides to revive the stalled talks, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. "China hopes Palestine and Israel overcome difficulties and strive for reaching concrete results at an early date" after they relaunch the talks next week, Hua was quoted as saying. China, along with the international community, is willing to play an active and constructive role for seeking a comprehensive and fair solution to the Palestinian issue, she said.