Japan PM to be first foreign leader to meet Trump

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said his department will do what it can to help ensure a seamless transition. Nakano told CNN that the Japanese administration had rushed to see Trump even before he assumed office while he was busy forming a new admnistration. Asked whether the issue would be raised, Conway told CBS: “Maybe they’ll discuss that today”. “I mean, those are his staff’s decisions to make”. “We are all on one team. But as I said, there’s been no outreach to date”.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his USA visit, which will include a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, is meant to build trust. “But it wouldn’t necessarily be normal at this early stage”.

The President-elect and his team have not followed what is considered normal protocol in Washington D.C.

“They will all sign lobbying bans”, Spicer said. “But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer”. “So there wouldn’t be much need for a paper”.

Usually that meeting would have been with the Prime Minister of England, so Trump has already thumbed his nose at convention and offended the British, but to have his daughter – who has zero foreign policy experience or expertise, and zero security clearance, is wholly unacceptable.

The meeting, which will take place at Trump Tower, is Mr. Trump’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader since he was elected the country’s 45th president. “He accepts facts and track records, so one approach is to share the facts with him” such as the number of jobs provided by Japanese companies in the United States, the politician said. Trump did not comment on the meeting.

Mr. Abe, a frequent golfer on weekends and holidays, found common ground on the subject with Mr. Trump, who counts golf courses among his many business ventures.

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Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his election last week comes at a time the world is eagerly looking to get a picture of his foreign and security policies. NPR’s Michele Kelemen reports.

Another name floated for the State Department has been former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani, a combative longtime backer of Trump who would likely face tough Senate scrutiny over his business dealings.

Trump and running-mate Mike Pence have apparently held telephone conversations with 29 foreign leaders since the United States election.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid out his vision for deeper Japanese involvement in Asian security and global diplomacy on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 in a historic speech to Congress. Japan’s finance minister also spoke positively of the meeting on Thursday and said the vital importance of the relationship to both countries made an early meeting all the more necessary.

Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said on Thursday the meeting would likely be “much more informal”, given that Trump does not take over the White House from Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama until January 20.

KELEMEN: Neumann runs The American Academy of Diplomacy, a non-profit here in Washington.

But 43-year-old Congressman Tim Ryan from industrial OH on Thursday announced he would challenge Pelosi, saying the election defeat showed that Democrats need to change. He says one thing is always certain.

Mr Abe is a career politician and while he looks like a mild-mannered Japanese man, he is a wily political veteran who knows how to extract the best deal for his country.

Abe is the prime minister of the world’s third largest economy. That’s on top of many others, from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to China’s Xi Jinping. In 2012 Romney described Russian Federation as the top geopolitical threat-a striking contrast to Trump who has exchanged compliments with president Vladimir Putin.

“I do believe that without confidence between the two nations the alliance would never function in the future and as the outcome of today’s discussion I am convinced Mr Trump is a leader in whom I can have great confidence in”.

KELEMEN: As for the State Department’s transition office, Trump will be sending over a so-called landing team soon.