Missile destroyer Shenzhen set off for Tokyo from Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, yesterday, and by next week it will become the first People's Liberation Army (PLA) ship to call at a Japanese port.
Rear Admiral Xiao Xinnian, vice-chief of staff of the PLA's South China Sea Fleet, is leading 345 naval officers and soldiers on the trip.
Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force will hold a ceremony to receive the Chinese group. The two sides will conduct military exchanges and entertainment programs, including visiting each other's naval ships and holding a joint band performance for people in Tokyo.
The ship will be open to the public in Tokyo, and will reportedly call at Yokosuka, a port at the entrance to Tokyo Bay, too.
The visit, which is likely to be reciprocated by Japanese naval vessels, is part of the exchange program agreed to in August by Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and his then Japanese counterpart Masahiko Komura in Tokyo.
The two countries have prepared for the exchange for many years with repeated consultations conducted by the two countries' foreign and defense ministries.
The landmark visit, following the Japanese tour by Cao in late August, turns a new leaf in the history of the often rocky bilateral relations, according to Professor Liu Jiangyong of Tsinghua University, and Rear Admiral Yang Yi, an expert at the PLA University of National Defense.
It will exert positive influence on the China-Japan defense relations, avoiding strategic misjudgment and safeguarding the stability and peace of the Asia-Pacific region, especially Northeast Asia, and the world at large, Yang said.
Liu said the visit is a symbol of the improving mutual trust between the two sides in the area of defense, that will "help advance the establishment of strategic, mutually beneficial Sino-Japanese security relations".
The visit could play a unique role in promoting Japanese knowledge and goodwill toward China, Liu said.
Source: China Daily/Xinhua
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