With China's high-handed maritime expansion in mind, the Japanese and French governments will likely establish a "maritime dialogue" mechanism to comprehensively strengthen bilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Japanese government officials.
Arrangements are currently being made to reach an agreement on the matter during a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron, when Abe makes a scheduled visit to France in mid-July.
According to the officials, the Japan-France maritime dialogue mechanism was proposed by the French side. Under the mechanism, the government assumes that Japan and France will discuss reinforcing wide-ranging bilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, such as joint exercises between the Self-Defense Forces and the French military, as well as in the fields of maritime security and energy resource development.
The Japanese and French governments are considering holding dialogues involving senior working-level officials spanning various ministries.
New Caledonia and French Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean are French overseas territories and the country has military bases there. France, therefore, recognizes that stability in the Indo-Pacific region is directly tied to its own national interests.
Macron apparently wants to bolster France's presence in the region. This is in sync with the "free and open Indo-Pacific strategy" promoted by Abe.
The Japanese government, which is currently strengthening maritime security cooperation with such countries as the United States, Australia and India, plans to cooperate closely with many countries that support the Indo-Pacific strategy.
Through the cooperation, Japan wants to deter the aggressive maritime advances of China, which has, for example, conducted large-scale land reclamation to create artificial islands in the South China Sea
Abe and Macron are making arrangements to observe a military parade, which is scheduled to be held on the Champs-Elysees avenue in central Paris on July 14 -- France's Bastille Day -- to emphasize the close bilateral relationship between the two countries.
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