Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Meets With Donald Trump

Abe, for his part, emerged from the meeting saying he is “convinced Mr. Trump is a leader in whom I can have great confidence”.

During his presidential campaign, Trump questioned several crucial components of U.S. About 50,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan.

In September, Abe met with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but not Trump, when the prime minister was in NY for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University was more skeptical of the Trump-Abe meeting. “We are all on one team”.

The meeting was Trump’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader since he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton last week.

“The talks made me feel sure that we can build a relationship of trust”, PM Abe told reporters. “Trump has little foreign policy knowledge and it’s worth trying to educate him”. Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said last week that the country makes sufficient contributions to the upkeep of USA forces in Japan.

It is not surprising that Trump would pass on the State Department’s help.

Japanese officials said that Abe gave Trump a golf driver and received golf-wear in return.

On the campaign trail, Trump said that Japan, one of Washington’s closest allies, should contribute more for USA backing on security matters, including the presence of American troops in the country, as well as possibly developing its own nuclear weapons to counter the North Korean threat.

It is believed that Abe emphasized during the meeting the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance and free trade mechanisms, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Japan has been a pacifist nation ever since World War II, which effectively ended when the US dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Trump, during his campaign, had also said that America may be “better off” without its nuclear-armed Asian partners. “Somehow, that doesn’t sound so fair”.

Japan has grown increasingly wary of North Korea as well as ongoing disputes within the region over the South China Sea, an important economic and strategic passage, which has been a thorny issues between the USA and China. Donald Trump to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in March 2016.

Abe met with Trump in NY on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place in Peru.

Trump’s transition office did not provide a readout of their meeting.

Abe called Trump on November 10 soon after news reports confirmed he had won the presidential election.

He told reporters the US President-elect was someone “in whom I can have great confidence”.