Tokyo, 24 April, /AJMEDIA
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Saturday demonstrated the two nations’ solid alliance, as they embarked together on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier after its military drill in waters near Japan earlier this month.
At a press conference held in the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, Hayashi said that the vessel’s activities in the region “embody a resolution of the United States to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific” region, where security concerns have been growing over activities by China and North Korea.
Hayashi and Emanuel were observing the U.S. carrier, whose strike group conducted a 10-day joint naval exercise through April 17 involving vessels and fighter jets of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
The drill came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuels fears China could be emboldened to intensify its military activities in the Indo-Pacific region, while North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile testing has also put a renewed focus on threats from the country.
“Aggressors in the region are acting in bad faith and threatening peace and stability, as well as the values we, the United States and Japan, hold,” Emanuel told the news conference. “We are uniting like never before with our partners and allies around the globe, to speak out against war and stand up for peace.”
During the ship observation, Hayashi also held talks with Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and exchanged views with the carrier’s crew, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
