India is indispensable partner in Japan's vision for Indo-Pacific: Japanese envoy Satoshi Suzuki

India is the "indispensable partner" in Japan's endeavour to achieve its vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific and both countries have been deepening cooperation in areas of maritime security and connectivity, Japanese ambassador Satoshi Suzuki said on Tuesday.

The envoy said it will require collective efforts by like-minded countries to realise the vision which is getting traction across the world as it is based on universal values such as freedom, openness and inclusiveness.

"It goes without saying that India is the indispensable partner in Japan's endeavour to achieve our vision. A free and open Indo-Pacific is a natural shared goal for the two Asian maritime powers: Japan in the Pacific and India in the Indian Ocean," he said.

The Japanese ambassador was addressing a workshop on cooperation among India, France and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region, organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

In addition to bilateral efforts, Satoshi said Quad is another platform where Japan and India have been working together with a focus on Indo-Pacific.

The Quad, comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan, is aimed at ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, a region that witnessed increasing Chinese military assertiveness in recent years.

India and Japan have been regularly discussing the evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific and have signalled to expand cooperation to deal with common challenges.

"The free and open Indo-Pacific vision has been the core diplomatic concept that Japan stands on. And it remains so under the current PM (Yoshihide) Suga's administration, as demonstrated by his first foreign visit destinations being Vietnam and Indonesia," Suzuki said.

He also said that Japan attaches a great significance to its cooperation with France in the Indo-Pacific region.

Suzuki identified maritime security and digital connectivity as important areas for trilateral discussion among India, Japan and France.

"As the challenges in these areas go beyond geographical boundaries, international cooperation is essential, and region-wide trilateral cooperation should make a difference," he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador of France Emmanuel Lenain said France has been following a cooperative strategy, and it wished to work on key issues with its foremost Asian partners like India and Japan, as well as any other country willing to join it.

He said a rapid change in the balance of power, including unilateral policies by some countries, has been witnessed, adding the COVID-19 crisis has been a great accelerator of both opportunities and risks.

All this creates uncertainties and triggers the risk of non-cooperative policies, he said.

In this context, India, Japan and France stand as factors of stability and progress, Lenain added.