WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Japanese national security adviser Shigeru Kitamura agreed Friday that the bilateral alliance is the “cornerstone” of pursuing a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to the U.S. government.

The two “reaffirmed that the U.S.-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said, referring to a vision that has evolved amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

Kitamura assured Pompeo of the continuity of Japan’s foreign and security policy in the wake of the first change in the country’s leadership in nearly eight years, according to the Japanese government.

Ortagus said that Pompeo also congratulated Kitamura on his re-appointment as the head of Japan’s National Security Secretariat upon last week’s launch of the new government under Yoshihide Suga, a longtime loyalist to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The talks were the latest in a series of meetings Kitamura had with key officials of the administration of President Donald Trump this week, including his counterpart Robert O’Brien and Defense Secretary Mark Esper.