(Reuters) -China will expand imports of high-quality agricultural products from Tajikistan and encourage Chinese companies to invest in the landlocked country, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a visit to the capital, Dushanbe.
Wang told his Tajik counterpart, Sirojiddin Muhriddin, that China would remain a “trustworthy and reliable partner” for Tajikistan, according to a Foreign Ministry statement released late on Saturday.
Wang thanked Tajikistan for its “firm support on issues involving China’s core interests, such as Taiwan”, it said.
“China will never allow right-wing forces in Japan to reverse the course of history, nor permit external forces to interfere in Taiwan, and will never allow Japanese militarism to resurface,” the statement said.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with China this month, telling a questioner in parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically governed Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Wang said during the meeting in Tajikistan that China would “work with all parties to uphold the international consensus on the one-China principle and jointly safeguard the achievements of the victory in World War Two.”
He said China and Tajikistan would deepen cooperation, expand mineral resource development and strengthen security by conducting bilateral joint patrols.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by William Mallard)
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