President Trump Friday met with Japan’s prime minister one day after a
phone call with China’s leader that was reportedly friendly and one
where Trump vowed to honor a “one China” policy.
Japan, a major U.S. ally in the Pacific, has long been a suspicious of its neighbor
Welcoming
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House with a hug, Trump said he
wants to bring the post-World War II alliance with Japan "even closer."
Although
Japan is a historic rival of China, Trump said that his long and "warm"
conversation with Xi was good for Tokyo, too."I believe that will all
work out very well for everybody, China, Japan, the United States and
everybody in the region," Trump said at a joint news conference with
Abe.
VIDEO: TRUMP TALKS ABOUT THE US' RELATIONSHIP WITH JAPAN
Trump,
fresh off patching up ties with China, reassured Japan's leader that
the U.S. will defend its close ally. Together, the pronouncements
illustrated a shift toward a more mainstream Trump stance on U.S. policy
toward Asia.
Welcoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White
House with a hug, Trump said he wants to bring the post-World War II
alliance with Japan "even closer."
While such calls are ritual
after these types of meetings, from Trump they're sure to calm anxieties
that he has stoked by demanding that America's partners pay more for
their own defense.
Abe, a nationalist adept at forging
relationships with self-styled strongmen overseas, was the only world
leader to meet the Republican before his inauguration. He is now the
second to do so since Trump took office. Flattering the billionaire
businessman, Abe said he would welcome the United States becoming "even
greater."
He also invited Trump to visit Japan this year. Trump accepted, according to a joint statement.
Other
leaders of America's closest neighbors and allies, such as Mexico,
Britain and Australia, have been singed by their encounters or
conversations with Trump.
But the optics Friday were positive.
After a working lunch on economic issues, the two leaders boarded Air
Force One with their wives for a trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in
Florida. They dined with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the
club Friday night. Trump and Abe are scheduled to play golf Saturday.
Stepping
carefully into Japan's longstanding territorial dispute with China over
uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Trump said the U.S. is
committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its
administrative control. The implication was that the U.S.-Japan defense
treaty covers the disputed islands, which Japan which calls the Senkaku,
but China calls the Diaoyu.
Beijing opposes such statements, but
Trump's wording allowed for some diplomatic wiggle room. The joint
statement released later was more explicit, however, in spelling out the
U.S. commitment.
Abe has championed a more active role for
Japan's military. He has eased constraints imposed by the nation's
pacifist post-war constitution and allowed forces to defend allies, even
if Japan itself is not under attack.
There was less agreement on economics.
One
of Trump's first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from a
12-nation, trans-Pacific trade agreement that was negotiated by the
Obama administration and strongly supported by Tokyo.
Diverting
from Trump's stance that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is bad for
America, Abe stressed the importance of a "free and fair common set of
rules" for trade among the world's most dynamic economies.
"That
was the purpose of TPP. That importance has not changed," Abe said
through an interpreter, though both leaders held out the possibility of a
future bilateral, U.S.-Japanese deal.
Trump has also criticized
Toyota Motor Corp. for planning to build an assembly plant in Mexico and
has complained Japanese don't buy enough U.S.-made cars — though on
Friday, Japanese government spokesman Norio Maruyama said Trump
expressed appreciation to Abe for Japanese investment in the U.S. and
looked forward to it expanding.
Abe told U.S. business leaders
Friday that "a whopping majority" of the Japanese cars running on
American roads are manufactured in the U.S. by American workers. That
includes 70 percent of Toyotas. Abe said Japanese business supports some
840,000 jobs in the United States.
That may not be enough for Trump, who is highly sensitive to U.S. trade deficits.
Japan
logged the second-largest surplus with the U.S. last year, behind only
China, and there had been some expectation Abe would use the visit to
propose new Japanese investments to help Trump spur American job growth.
There was no such announcement Friday — only agreement to launch a
high-level dialogue on economic cooperation.
While such calls are
ritual after these types of meetings, from Trump they're sure to calm
anxieties that he has stoked by demanding that America's partners pay
more for their own defense.
Abe, a nationalist adept at forging
relationships with self-styled strongmen overseas, was the only world
leader to meet the Republican before his inauguration. He is now the
second to do so since Trump took office. Flattering the billionaire
businessman, Abe said he would welcome the United States becoming "even
greater."
He also invited Trump to visit Japan this year. Trump accepted, according to a joint statement.
Other
leaders of America's closest neighbors and allies, such as Mexico,
Britain and Australia, have been singed by their encounters or
conversations with Trump.
But the optics Friday were positive.
After a working lunch on economic issues, the two leaders boarded Air
Force One with their wives for a trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in
Florida. They dined with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the
club Friday night. Trump and Abe are scheduled to play golf Saturday.
Their
Oval Office meeting came hours after Trump reaffirmed Washington's
long-standing "one China" policy in a call with Chinese President Xi
Jinping. That statement will similarly ease anxieties in East Asia after
Beijing was angered and other capitals were rattled by earlier
suggestions that he might use Taiwan as leverage in trade, security and
other negotiations.
Stepping carefully into Japan's longstanding
territorial dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East
China Sea, Trump said the U.S. is committed to the security of Japan and
all areas under its administrative control. The implication was that
the U.S.-Japan defense treaty covers the disputed islands, which Japan
which calls the Senkaku, but China calls the Diaoyu.
Beijing
opposes such statements, but Trump's wording allowed for some diplomatic
wiggle room. The joint statement released later was more explicit,
however, in spelling out the U.S. commitment.
Abe has championed a
more active role for Japan's military. He has eased constraints imposed
by the nation's pacifist post-war constitution and allowed forces to
defend allies, even if Japan itself is not under attack.
As a
candidate, Trump urged even greater self-reliance, at one point even
raising the notion of Japan and South Korea developing their own nuclear
weapons as a deterrent to North Korea.
He made no similar remark
Friday, and according to Japanese officials, did not raise the issue of
cost-sharing for defense. Instead he thanked Japan for hosting nearly
50,000 American troops, which also serve as a counterweight to China's
increased regional influence. He said freedom of navigation and dealing
with North Korea's missile and nuclear threats are a "very high
priority."
There was less agreement on economics.
One of
Trump's first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from a
12-nation, trans-Pacific trade agreement that was negotiated by the
Obama administration and strongly supported by Tokyo.
Diverting
from Trump's stance that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is bad for
America, Abe stressed the importance of a "free and fair common set of
rules" for trade among the world's most dynamic economies.
"That
was the purpose of TPP. That importance has not changed," Abe said
through an interpreter, though both leaders held out the possibility of a
future bilateral, U.S.-Japanese deal.
That may not be enough for Trump, who is highly sensitive to U.S. trade deficits.
Japan
logged the second-largest surplus with the U.S. last year, behind only
China, and there had been some expectation Abe would use the visit to
propose new Japanese investments to help Trump spur American job growth.
There was no such announcement Friday — only agreement to launch a
high-level dialogue on economic cooperation.