Tokyo, 01 May, /AJMEDIA/
Japan and France are planning to hold online ministerial security talks early this month, government sources said, in a bid to ramp up their collaboration to address China’s intensifying military activities in the Indo-Pacific region.
The two nations’ foreign and defense ministers are also likely to discuss the launch of negotiations for the Reciprocal Access Agreement, a defense cooperation deal to facilitate the smoother deployment of their forces to each other, according to the sources.
Through the “two-plus-two” talks, Tokyo and Paris will aim to share security issues ahead of a possible meeting between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and French President Emmanuel Macron in Japan, the sources said.
The two leaders may meet on the fringes of the three-day Group of Seven summit to be held in Hiroshima in western Japan from May 19, the sources added.
Japan and France have held such ministerial security talks six times, the last one taking place virtually in January last year.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, along with their French counterparts, Catherine Colonna and Sebastien Lecornu, are expected to attend the planned online gathering.
The talks would come as the two nations have been recently beefing up their security cooperation, especially in the Indo-Pacific, amid growing concern about Beijing’s expanding economic and military clout in the area.
The participants are also expected to reaffirm the importance of peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, and that the two governments will continue to work together in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the sources.
Taiwan has been facing mounting military pressure from Communist-led China, which sees the self-ruled democratic island as its own territory to be reunited with the mainland, possibly by force.
Macron drew criticism from Western partners when he warned of being drawn into a Taiwan crisis in an interview with Les Echos and Politico earlier this month.
France, which has overseas territories in the South Pacific such as New Caledonia, released its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2018 and has been deepening its involvement in the region.
