Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his British counterpart Elizabeth Truss on Friday pledged to enhance cooperation toward a free and open Indo-Pacific.

In their first telephone talks since Truss assumed her new post earlier this week, Motegi welcomed the launch of a trilateral security pact involving Britain, the United States and Australia, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, in their apparent effort to counter China's growing clouts.

The meeting came after the British aircraft carrier the Queen Elizabeth took part in joint exercises involving the United States and made a port call in Japan earlier this month.

Britain has been stepping up its engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, partly propelled by Beijing's action to undermine democracy and human rights in Hong Kong, a former British colony.

On Friday, Motegi held telephone talks with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and agreed to continue the countries' close cooperation ahead of the first summit meeting in Washington next week of a four-country framework that also brings together the United States and India.