Malaysia asks Japan’s Abe to encourage Trump to support TPP

It will be Trump’s first meeting with a world leader since his election last week.

Before landing in South America, the Japanese prime minister will make a stopover in New York Thursday to meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump with an eye on reinforcing bilateral relations. “That would be awesome”, Trump immediately responded, according to people briefed on the conversation.

Prime Minister Abe is poised to be the first global leader to meet with President-elect Trump, Thursday 17 November 2016, in NY.

Our correspondent Terrence Terashima has more on why and how Abe plans to push the deal through.

“I’d like to frankly exchange views on a variety of issues and to express my views on matters like free trade. the economy, foreign policy, and security in general”, Abe told a parliamentary panel Monday in Tokyo.

Japanese and USA officials said on Wednesday the State Department had not been involved in planning the meeting, which has left the logistical and protocol details that normally would be settled weeks in advance still to be determined. But providing he avoids provoking a trade war with China, a Trump administration could actually be beneficial to Asia’s economy.

They already have plenty in common.

With the Republican Congress poised to break the Budget Control Act and sequestration, Japanese defense officials also see the prospect of real resources emerging for the military aspects of the rebalance to Asia.

No details have yet been made public, but Abe’s wife, Akie, is set to accompany him to NY.

The meeting was only agreed to last week and Mr Trump and his advisers have been busy in meetings at his headquarters in Manhattan’s Trump Tower in recent days to work out who gets which job in the new administration.

Newly elected US President Donald Trump is likely to abolish Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia policy and stop encouraging Asian Pacific nations to aggravate tensions in the South China Sea, Tom McGregor, Commentator and Editor at China Network Television (CNTV) suggested in an interview with Sputnik. Geopolitically, China now has a clear pathway toward pushing its own regional trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would link ASEAN’s ten member nations with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, accounting for one-third of global GDP, and strengthen Chinese economic leadership. “The Japanese government needs to be ready for such a situation”. Defence Minister Tomomi Inada has said Tokyo was paying enough.

But they add: “It’s only fair – and long past time – for each country to step up to the full cost-sharing plate”.

Mr Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence had spoken to 29 foreign leaders, the transition team said on Wednesday. “He’s a businessman, so it’s possible that he’d not be so knowledgeable about security issues”.

He has also said the same of South Korea, where U.S. troops have been stationed to counter the nuclear threat of North Korea, with which the South is technically still at war.

Both Japan and South Korea already pay considerable sums to support the USA bases, and note that it’s also in America’s strategic interest to deploy troops in the region. He quickly reassured the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea of his commitment to US alliances.

It will link Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 90 minutes and had attracted the interests of suppliers from many countries including China, Japan, South Korea and Europe.

This will be Gauck’s first visit to Japan, but it underlines a strong relationship between the two countries – every German president has embarked on a state visit to Japan since WWII.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade talks, which are supported by Beijing but to which the United States is not party, are viewed by some observers as a competitor to USA economic leadership in the region.

Mr Obama has had tense ties with Russian Federation but Mr Trump has praised Mr Putin and stressed the possibility of better relations.

Najib’s three-day visit to Japan began on Tuesday.