BERLIN, April 26 (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday urged all sides to ease tensions between North and South Korea and work towards a peaceful solution in the region.

"The most urgent task at the moment is the resumption of negotiations and all sides in the conflict must take part in this," said Wang Yi, according to an interpreter, speaking after talks with his German counterpart in Berlin.

"Security and stability is quite fragile and there is a great danger that a new conflict, or incidents could happen at any time. Therefore we call all sides to be restrained and to avoid actions or words that could lead to new provocations," he added. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Michael Nienaber) </s> Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses the media during a news conference following his meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias (not pictured) at the Foreign Ministry in Athens, Greece, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Michalis Karagiannis

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday urged all sides to ease tensions between North and South Korea and work towards a peaceful solution in the region.

“The most urgent task at the moment is the resumption of negotiations and all sides in the conflict must take part in this,” said Wang Yi, according to an interpreter, speaking after talks with his German counterpart in Berlin.

“Security and stability is quite fragile and there is a great danger that a new conflict, or incidents could happen at any time. Therefore we call all sides to be restrained and to avoid actions or words that could lead to new provocations,” he added. </s> BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called on the United States and North Korea on Thursday to have talks as soon as possible and said peace must prevail, amid signs of easing tension over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

Wang made the comments during a news briefing as part of the annual meeting of China’s parliament. </s> Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after talks with German Foreign Minister at the Borsig villa in Berlin. BERLIN: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged an end to US-South Korean military manoeuvres on Wednesday as well as a stop to North Korea's nuclear programme to calm tensions on the peninsula.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com. </s> China's foreign minister told his Indonesian counterpart that China had urged Vietnam to "calm down" and respect China's sovereignty amid protests in Vietnam over Chinese oil drilling in a disputed part of the South China Sea.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments to Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in a telephone call, the ministry said in a statement posted to its website on Wednesday. </s> Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping urged "restraint" over North Korea in a phone call with Donald Trump yesterday, even as Trump criticised Korea's "continued belligerence". Meanwhile, Japan joined exercises with an American supercarrier currently heading to the Korean peninsula.

"(China) hopes that the relevant parties can maintain restraint and avoid actions that would increase tensions," Xi said.

The conversation — the second since their summit this month - highlights rising concern in Beijing that tensions between Washington and Pyongyang could spiral into military conflict. </s> Beijing, Sep 6: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Pakistan Friday to hold talks with the country's new leadership to consolidate cooperation and elevate the all-weather bilateral strategic partnership.

This is the first high-level visit by a Chinese official to Islamabad since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections. The visit by Wang, who is also designated as the State Councillor which makes him the top diplomat of China, comes two days after that of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo met new Prime Minister Khan and pressed him to take "sustained and decisive measures" against terrorists threatening the regional peace and stability. Announcing Wang’s visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the media that besides holding talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, he would also meet top leaders of the new Pakistan government and exchange views on bilateral ties, regional and international issues of mutual interest.

"This is the first high-level visit between the two sides after the establishment of the new government in Pakistan. We hope that through the visit the two sides could consolidate our traditional friendship, all-round cooperation and elevate China-Pakistan all-weather strategic and cooperative partnership," she said when asked about China’s expectations from the visit from September 7-9.

"China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic and cooperative partners. We are good neighbours, good friends and good brothers. Our bilateral ties have been developing with sound momentum. We have frequent high-level exchanges, practical cooperation moving forward and rich outcomes from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)," she said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday congratulated Pakistan's newly-elected President Arif Alvi, saying the strategic significance of the bilateral ties is "more prominent under the current circumstances" and both sides should support each other "more staunchly".

Wang’s visit also comes amidst reports of unease in Beijing over how the new PTI government would approach over USD 50 billion Chinese investments in various projects under the CPEC connecting China’s Muslim-majority Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistan. Khan in the past criticised former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the lack of transparency and corruption in the CPEC projects.

Newly-appointed Finance Minister Asad Umar has promised to bring about transparency to the CPEC projects whose details remained closely guarded secrets. India has protested to China over the CPEC, which is being built through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). </s> KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, China and Afghanistan signed an anti-terrorism cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Saturday during the ongoing second trilateral ministerial dialogue in Kabul.

The second round of Pakistan-Afghanistan-China trilateral dialogue is being held in Kabul to discuss peace as well as economic and counter-terrorism cooperation, reported Geo News on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who is leading the Pakistani delegation at the dialogue signed the document along with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Yi and their Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani. The signing was witnessed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Earlier in the day while speaking at the opening session of the trilateral talk, FM Qureshi said that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan will have to collectively foil the designs of enemies of peace in the region.

Speaking at the trilateral dialogue, the foreign minister stressed the need for bolstering regional cooperation in diverse sectors.

Reaffirming commitment to eradication of terrorism, the foreign minister said, “Better border management between Pakistan and Afghanistan and intelligence sharing will be greatly beneficial for both the countries.”

“Pakistan will continue to play facilitative role on Afghan reconciliation process,” he added. “We will do everything to support the growing momentum towards reconciliation provided others play their due role and share responsibility and create an enabling environment towards that end,” the foreign minister further said.

Qureshi continued, “Pakistan has always supported dialogue process for peaceful resolution of Afghan conflict and our stance has now also been vindicated by the international community.”

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his remarks said that his country desires to make the Afghan reconciliation process successful. “We will play our role to reduce trust deficit between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Yi said and added that his country also wants to further strengthen relations with Afghanistan and desires to make it part of CPEC. “We support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” the Chinese foreign minister said.

This is the second meeting of the three foreign ministers after their kick-off meeting in Beijing last year.

FM Qureshi is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials of the Foreign Office on his one-day official visit to Kabul.

Further, during his day-long visit, the foreign minister will hold bilateral dialogue with his Chinese counterpart.

Speaking to the media ahead of his departure, the foreign minister welcomed the Chinese initiative of holding trilateral dialogue. “Both Pakistan and China desire peace, stability, prosperity and development in Afghanistan,” he said. “We are carrying the message of friendship and peace to Afghanistan,” he added. The foreign minister stressed that peace is imperative to for the region to move forward on the path of sustainable development.

The one-day Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral talks held in Kabul Saturday yielded remarkable outcome since major players of upcoming polls in Afghanistan namely Dr Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are in need of Pakistan’s support desperately for their contest.

Pakistan and China both have assured generous assistance for the wellbeing of Afghan people as both have announced to some significant projects in this regard. China has announced to lay railway line from Kandahar to Herat and other places afterwards while Pakistan will hand over two most sophisticated hospitals next year with state-of-the-art equipments being built in neighbouring areas of Jalalabad and Logar.

Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News/Jang Saturday evening that President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had meeting with visiting foreign ministers separately. They lack cordiality in their relationship. Chinese foreign minister has assured Islamabad and Kabul that it would provide arrangements for the comfort of each other side’s visitors on Chaman and Torkham borders entry points.

The sources revealed that the trilateral meeting will have positive impact on the talks between Taliban and United States at an unknown place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today (Sunday).

According to original schedule the same had to start a day earlier. It is likely that the talks would continue for two days as Pakistan has been facilitating it on the request of the United States.

NNI adds: Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has hailed Pakistan’s role in reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Talking to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Kabul Saturday, he thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the cooperation being extended by Pakistan to attain peace in his country.

The Afghan chief executive expressed hope that the bilateral relations will touch new heights during the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

On the occasion, the foreign minister said Pakistan will continue playing its positive and constructive role in reconciliatory process in Afghanistan.

He said peace in Afghanistan is important not only for Pakistan and Afghanistan but it will have impact on the entire region. He said both the countries have been dealing with the menace of terrorism for over forty years.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed confidence that the Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral dialogue forum will prove useful for peace and stability in the region and social development. </s> BEIJING (Reuters) - China hopes to work with Japan to establish more cordial relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart on Sunday, aiming to move on from a series of disputes, some dating back to before World War Two.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, left, shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi before their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China Jan. 28, 2018. REUTERS/Andy Wong/Pool

China and Japan have sparred frequently about their painful history, with Beijing often accusing Tokyo of not properly atoning for Japan’s invasion of China before and during the war.

Ties between China and Japan, the world’s second and third-largest economies, have also been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets and suspicion in China about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution.

The two nations have, however, sought to improve ties more recently, with Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping having met in November on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vietnam.

Wang told Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono that his trip to Beijing, coming so early in the year, showed Japan’s strong wish to improve relations and that China approves of this because better ties would be in both nations’ interests.

Though there has been positive progress, there are also many “disturbances and obstacles”, Wang said, but the minister also pointed to comments from Abe on wanting to improve relations.

“China-Japan ties always sail against the current, either forging ahead or drifting backward,” Wang said in front of reporters at the start of talks with his counterpart.

“We hope that the Japanese side will neither relax in its efforts nor fall back, and turn the spoken statements into concrete actions.”

Kono, who later met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, said that the two countries shared a major responsibility in safeguarding the stability and prosperity of Asia and the world at large.

“Not only do we need to manage our bilateral relations, but we also need to work together to deal with issues facing the entire globe, in particular the issue of North Korea,” Kono said. “We desire to extend mutual cooperation between our two countries in working towards resolving this issue.”

Japan has repeatedly pressed China to do more to help rein in North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes. China says it is committed to enforcing U.N. sanctions but that all parties need to do more to reduce tensions and restart talks.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Maruyama told reporters that China and Japan are aiming to hold several high-level visits this year. These would include Abe visiting China and Xi going to Japan, he said, though no dates have been set.

“Let’s see. It’s all a question of the schedule,” he said.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi calls for restraint and urges all sides to take part in the resumption of negotiations.