JAKARTA, April 22 -- China-Japanrelations witnessed yet another sign of thawing on Wednesday when President Xi Jinpingmet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abehere on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit at the latter's request.

The latest temperature hike bodes well for the gradual rapprochement between the two Asian neighbors, whose relationship had nosedived due to irresponsible and even provocative Japanese behavior before a Xi-Abe meeting last November placed it back on an upward trend.

But the pace of detente could have been faster. The estrangement between the two weighty international players has persisted at a dear cost in terms of the time and opportunities squandered, and has put too many nerves on edge for too long. So the quicker the recovery, the better.

Thus Beijing's agreement to hold the meeting was of timely significance. It testified to its willingness to seize the hard-won momentum that has gathered since their last tete-a-tete, and inject a fresh dose of vigor into the healing bilateral relations.

During the sit-down, Xi stressed that the two sides should stick to the spirit demonstrated in the four political documents undergirding their relationship, and that Japan should take seriously the concerns of its Asian neighbors on the fundamentally important historical issues.

Xi's remarks, which also include calls on the two neighbors to adopt a positive approach toward each other, strengthen communication, boost mutual trust and expand exchange and cooperation, charted the right course for the future development of bilateral ties.

Given their close economic intertwinement and eminent status as the world' s second- and third-largest economies, an early restoration of China-Japan ties not only accords with the interests of both nations, but caters to the needs of regional stability and global prosperity.

The ball is now in Abe's court. Yet his administration seems to have either failed to grasp the full magnitude of bilateral relations, or chosen to pursue some short-term, selfish gains at the expense of a much larger good. Its opportunistic approach borders on double-dealing.

On the one hand, it has been publicly appealing for more top-level contact and better bilateral relations. On the other, it has never disabused itself of the illusion of tricking China into mending fences without Japan doing its part.

Now with the recovery of bilateral relations having made visible progress, it is high time that Abe abandoned his gimmickry and walked his talk with concrete actions for improving the still constrained China-Japan relations.

There are a series of subjects for them to use as handles. Japan has voiced interest in joining the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the two sides are mulling a communication mechanism to avert unintended escalations over their island dispute in the East China Sea.

But it is undeniable that it is the Abe administration's treacherous stance on the sensitive historical issues that has been the biggest shackles restraining the two economic giants from fully exploring their cooperation potential for mutual and broader benefit.

Thus the absence of a sincere apology over Japan's wartime atrocities in Abe's speech at the bi-continental leaders' meeting was highly conspicuous and deeply regrettable, and marked a betrayal of the spirit of the occasion, which was aimed at commemorating a historic 1955 Asian-African conference against imperialism and colonialism.

Yet in his meeting with Xi, Abe reaffirmed that his cabinet will stick to the stances of past Japanese governments on the historical issues, including the 1995 Murayama Statement, in which then Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized for the damage and pains militarist Japan inflicted upon Asian neighbors during WWII.

Abe's reaffirmation is nothing new, and has to be taken with a big pinch of salt, as it has in the past been accompanied with, among others, naked attempts to whitewash Japan's wartime crimes in middle school history textbooks.

Upon the 70th anniversary of Japan's WWII defeat, which marked the end of one of the darkest chapters in human history, all eyes will be on Abe for his planned statement in August.

Japan has owed the world a sincere apology for too long, and it is Abe's obligation to pay his country's due.