(VOVworld) -  Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Filipino counterpart Albert del Rosario have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in maritime security, said the Japanese Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, left, and with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida during a meeting in 2013. Photo: AP

Meeting in Hiroshima on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting on nuclear disarmament, Kishida expressed Japan's support for the Philippines' recent filing with a UN tribunal of a maritime case against China under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Kishida stressed that the Philippines' pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the dispute by filing the case is grounded in the rule of law.