Japan’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori (R) shakes hands with South Korea’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun-dong (L). AFP
According to the Japanese government, the first vice foreign ministerial meetings between Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union took place on Thursday and resulted in an agreement to develop particular cooperation in the Indo-Pacific area.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the officials agreed that it is “useful” to talk about how to uphold the free and open international order based on the rule of law, seemingly alluding to China’s maritime aggression in the region.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European nations have been concentrating on strengthening their security cooperation with the four nations of the Asia-Pacific region.
Takeo Mori, the vice foreign minister, and Stefano Sannino, the secretary general of the European External Action Service, who is visiting Tokyo, spoke online with their counterparts, Cho Hyun-dong of South Korea, Jan Adams of Australia, and Chris Seed of New Zealand.
According to the ministry, the five participants also discussed how the European Union and other like-minded countries are involved in the Indo-Pacific area.
NATO views the four Asia-Pacific countries as partner nations. Their leaders were invited for the first time to a summit of the trans-Atlantic military alliance in Madrid in June last year.
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