Japan decides to lift freeze on aid loans to China

Japan on Tuesday decided to life its freeze on the annual disbursement of aid loans to China for fiscal 2005, which ended on March 31, 2006, Kyodo News reported.

The decision was made by a top government decision-making panel on foreign aid strategy, which comprises Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and other cabinet ministers, Kyodo said.

Koizumi told reporters after the meeting that Japan always attaches great importance to its ties with China, stressing the decision was made after taking into account the significance of the Japan-China relations.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also said Japan made the decision after considerating comprehensively Japan's national interests and the status quo of the Japan-China relations.

The Japanese government will ratify the decision soon, but there was no change in Japan's policy to terminate the aid to China by 2008, Abe added.

Local media disclosed that the aid loans were 74 billion yen (about 659 million U.S. dollars), down 12 billion yen from the previous fiscal year.

Decisions on the annual disbursement of aid loans to China are often made by cabinet ministers at year end, and then implemented in the following year.

But the Japanese government unilaterally decided to delay a decision on the aid loans in March due to the deteriorated China-Japan relations over Japanese leaders' repeated visits to the Yakusuni Shrine, which honors Japan's notorious World War II criminals.

Japan's aid loans to China, starting in 1979, reached a peak of 214.4 billion yen in 2000, but have declined ever since. The two countries have basically reached agreements on an end to the inter-governmental aid loans before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Source: Xinhua