Asia's two largest economies yesterday vowed to work closely together on business and security issues while deftly managing their differences, in the face of policy whiplash from the United States.

China's top envoy Wang Yi, who is the first Chinese Foreign Minister to visit Tokyo in nearly 8½ years, said at the outset of talks with his Japanese counterpart, Mr Taro Kono, that he hoped bilateral ties could "return on a path of sustainable and normal development" even though there were some "complex and sensitive elements".