(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-12 17:26

China and South Korea said they expect the warming trends in their sometimes rocky relations with Japan to continue following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's announcement  to resign on Wednesday.

Abe played an active and constructive role in developing China-Japan ties, which have scored tangible improvement through the efforts of both the Chinese and Japanese governments and peoples, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu made the remarks when commenting on Abe's resignation.

Further development of China-Japan ties is in the basic interests of the two nations and their peoples, Jiang said.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong sounded similarly upbeat.

"If a new prime minister is appointed and a new Cabinet is formed, we hope that the existing friendly and cooperative relations between South Korea and Japan would be further developed," Cho said.

Chinese scholars said they don't expect any vast changes in relations following Abe's announcement, but said that depended largely on the attitude and policies of his successor.

Abe's resignation "introduces new unstable factors into bilateral relations," said Jin Linbo, a researcher at the China Institute for International Studies.