Leaders of political rivals China and Taiwan have met for the first time in more than 60 years for talks the self-ruled island.
China's President Xi Jinping and his Taiwanese counterpart, Ma Ying-jeou, shook hands at the start of the summit in Singapore on Saturday.
Xi said the two sides are "one family" and cannot be drawn apart.
Ma responded by telling Xi the two sides should observe mutual respect after years of aggression and rivalry and "respect each other's values and way of life". "We feel like old friends, even though this is the first meeting. Behind us is history extending for 60 years," he said. It was the first such summit since China's civil war ended in 1949. The talks come ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan. The reigning Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), retreated to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the communists, who are still in charge in Beijing. China has never rejected the use of power to take what it considers a breakaway province under its control.
Symbolic meeting No treaties were expected in what was seen as a highly symbolic get-together at a luxury hotel in Singapore, a largely ethnic Chinese city-state that has maintained good ties with both sides for decades. In the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, about 1,000 protesters marched on Saturday to condemn the meeting.
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