Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and new Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed Wednesday the two nations will closely cooperate to maintain and reinforce rules-based maritime order amid China's rise in the Indo-Pacific. Hayashi told an online news conference after a meeting in Manila with Marcos, who took office the same day, that the two countries will also bolster bilateral ties and aim to resume active people-to-people exchanges toward economic recovery in a post-coronavirus pandemic era. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites. If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this support page.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Maltese counterpart Joseph Muscat agreed Wednesday to closely cooperate in maintaining maritime order based on the rule of law. In a news conference after their meeting in Tokyo, Abe said the two leaders confirmed the importance of the issue. Malta is the home of the International Maritime Law Institute aimed at training specialists in the field. Abe said they also agreed to work together in resolving outstanding issues surrounding North Korea, including Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s. On the economic front, Muscat, the first Maltese prime minister to visit Japan in 28 years, expressed hope for an early implementation of a free trade agreement Japan and the European Union signed last month.