First day 'important beginning' of six-party talks, FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 26, 2004

First day 'important beginning' of six-party talks, FM

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Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Wednesday that the discussions and various forms of contacts during the first day of the six-party talks marked "an important beginning" for seeking a solution.

Li made the remarks at a banquet he hosted for the delegates of the six-party talks, which started on Wednesday morning.

The six parties, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan, firstly held a plenary session of the second round of Beijing talks on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue.

Li said all sides showed willingness and a flexible attitude for resolving the issues. They released certain active information and expressed ideas and proposals for tackling the problem, adding that there are a number of common points in the discussion, Li said.

He admitted that there are still differences on the stances of different sides, including "some relatively large differences."

All these demonstrated that the solution to the nuclear issue requires a process to narrow the gap between different sides, he said.

He hoped all sides would not avoid differences in discussions in the coming days. All sides, however, "should not allow differences to impede the process of the dialogues, even divert the direction of seeking political solution to the problem", he said.

Only if all sides maintain reason and patience and show political wisdom and flexibility with mutual compromise, can the differences be reduced and consensus be reached, Li said.

In such a way, the concrete goals and framework can be set for resolving the issue, the minister said.

He hoped the second round of talks would bear concrete results because such an end "is in the interests of all sides and complies with the aspiration of the international community," he said.

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