Japan PM vows to play ‘proactive role’ ensuring ‘free and open’ Asia-Pacific

HANOI:Japan’s prime minister vowed Saturday to play “an even more proactive role” ensuring a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region, using a speech in communist Vietnam to tout a foreign policy initiative that has long rankled neighboring China.
“I am renewing my determination to fulfil Japan’s responsibilities, and indeed, to play an even more proactive role than ever before in building an international order based on freedom, openness, diversity, inclusiveness, and the rule of law,” Sanae Takaichi said in a speech to university students in Hanoi streamed online by Japanese public broadcaster NHK.