Japan has said that it will update the government’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” (FOIP) to better confront new and emerging challenges amid a deteriorating regional security environment.
“It is necessary to evolve the FOIP strategy in the most appropriate manner to respond to the changing times,” the government’s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, told a news conference Monday, adding that the Foreign Ministry and other relevant agencies had been instructed to begin a review process.
Kihara said that while the 10-year-old FOIP strategy’s “fundamental principles” of freedom, upholding the rule of law as well as respect for diversity, inclusiveness and openness will remain intact, Japan needed to expand the scope of the policy to meet the challenges of today.
AloJapan.com