TOKYO, 24 April 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel 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 “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.