The foreign ministers of Japan and Poland on Friday signed a five-year action plan aimed at enhancing security and economic ties.
The action plan through 2025, inked in Warsaw by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau, calls for the two nations to maintain regular high-level political contacts and aim for a bilateral agreement to boost defense cooperation.
It is a follow-up to a previous five-year plan adopted after the relationship between Japan and Poland was upgraded to a "strategic partnership" in 2015.
The newest plan, mapping out cooperation goals in various fields ranging from infrastructure and energy to higher education, was signed after a meeting between Motegi and Rau held a day after the Japanese minister finished attending talks with his counterparts from the Group of Seven advanced economies in London.
Japan and Poland said they will work closely toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific and oppose any "coercive or unilateral actions" in the East and South China seas, where China is stepping up its territorial claims.
The plan also commits Japan and Poland, which has diplomatic ties with North Korea, to continue to urge Pyongyang to take concrete actions toward abandoning all its nuclear weapons and respect human rights.
Among other economic cooperation programs, the two countries said they will promote the development and use of clean energy sources and share best practices in the field of climate change mitigation.