US President Donald Trump traveled to Tokyo today, where he will meet with the Japanese Emperor and newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
The visit to Japan is part of his Asian tour aimed at strengthening trade relations, attracting investment and increasing defense cooperation.
Trump, who is on his longest trip abroad since taking office in January, announced a series of agreements with Southeast Asian countries during his first visit to Malaysia and attended the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia.
The tour should end in three days in South Korea at a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping where the world’s two largest economies will try to prevent further escalation of the trade conflict.
“Now to Japan!”
Trump has already secured Japanese investment worth $550 billion in exchange for easing import tariffs, while Prime Minister Takaichi hopes to win over the American leader further by announcing purchases of American trucks, soybeans and natural gas.
“I am just leaving Malaysia, a great and very dynamic country. We signed major trade and rare earth agreements, and yesterday, most importantly, a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. NO WAR! Millions of lives saved,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform shortly before his departure.
“Great honor to have made it happen. Now to Japan!” he added. Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female prime minister last week, told Trump that strengthening the alliance between Japan and the United States was her “highest priority” during their first phone call the day before yesterday.
Announced protests
A close associate of slain former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who developed a close relationship with the US president on the golf course during Trump’s first term, Takaichi appears to have already gained his trust.
Trump said today that he was looking forward to meeting with the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister, who was a “great ally” of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I’m looking forward to meeting the new prime minister. I hear phenomenal things,” he said.
Because of Trump’s arrival in the Japanese capital, there are thousands of police officers on the streets, and the situation was further aggravated by the arrest of a man with a knife in front of the American embassy three days ago and the announced protest against Trump in the central Tokyo district of Shinjuku.
(Vijesti.ba)
