Japan and Lithuania said Wednesday they will set up a bilateral framework to discuss security issues, amid Russia's prolonged war in Ukraine as well as China's growing military and economic clout in the Indo-Pacific region.
After their meeting in Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte issued a joint statement in which they vowed to strengthen ties between the two nations by sharing knowledge of international security issues under the new dialogue framework, although without showing any time frame.
Condemning Moscow's aggression against Ukraine, the statement said the two leaders shared "the growing recognition of the inseparability of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security."