Asahi said the GOJ plans to call for support from countries in East Asia for the U.S.-Japan diplomatic initiative on creating a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, explaining that Prime Minister Abe is set to explain the diplomatic vision when he holds talks with his regional counterparts on the margins of the APEC-related conferences in Vietnam this week. Tokyo is keen to seize the initiative in establishing a new regional order in collaboration with Washington. Other papers ran similar stories, adding that Foreign Minister Kono met with his Australian, Vietnamese, and Thai counterparts in Da Nang, Vietnam, yesterday and asked for their endorsement of the vision.