Abe, who was killed in 2022, stopped in New York to join with Trump during a hastily scheduled appointment at Trump Tower less than a week after the 2016 election.
The pair’s near relation, which developed over many days spent on the golf lessons, helped to resolve a number of issues that came up during his first term, including trade disputes between the friends.
In advance of the 2024 election, Chinese officials had been intensifying their efforts to renew relations with those close to Trump, concerned that he might impose tariffs on steel on the country and resend demands that it pay more for the cost of stationing US forces there if he was elected.
When I was questioned on Thursday about the latter matter, Ishiba claimed he did not talk about it in the phone call with Trump. ” Rather than rely on financial amounts, we would like to actively explore the increasing of the Japan-US empire from various perspectives”, he added.
Ishiba expressed promise in working with Mr. Trump to bring the Japan-US ally and Japan-US marriage to new heights when he congratulated Trump on Wednesday evening for his victory in the election.
Japan and the United States are each other’s best foreign investors, and 54, 000 US military officers are stationed in Japan, mostly in the southwestern area of Okinawa.