WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s meeting with Japan’s prime minister offers a chance to shore up a long-standing security alliance and repair economic ties shaken by U.S. withdrawal from a Pacific trade pact.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is expected to propose more Japanese investment in the U.S., has wasted no time in trying to win Trump’s trust. He was the only world leader to meet the Republican before inauguration, and will be the second to do so since the new president took office.
Trump and Abe will hold talks in the Oval Office on Friday, followed by a joint news conference and a working lunch. Trump will then host Abe and his wife at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. The two leaders are scheduled to play golf on Saturday.
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 Japanese officials are optimistic the invitation to visit Trump’s “Winter White House” signals a more positive outcome.
Although the U.S. administration is only three weeks old, some repair work is already in order. Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and campaign trail demands that allies pay more for their own defense sowed doubts in Tokyo about the new administration’s commitment to an alliance that has underpinned security in the Asia-Pacific since the end of World War II and one which Abe has sought to strengthen.