Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could face some tense moments when he meets with President Trump this month at Mar-a-Lago, reflecting rising fears back home that Tokyo has been left on the sidelines as the U. S., South Korea and Chinese pursue direct diplomacy with North Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could face some tense moments when he meets with President Trump this month at Mar-a-Lago, reflecting rising fears back home that Tokyo has been left on the sidelines as the U. S., South Korea and Chinese pursue direct diplomacy with North Korea.
Administration officials late Monday confirmed the meeting with Mr. Abe at Mr. Trump’s “Winter White House” on April 17 and 18. They said the third face-to-face meeting of the two leaders since Mr. Trump’s election will focus on ways Washington and Tokyo can stay in lockstep in the “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign to force Pyongyang to roll back its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
But the real reason Mr. Abe is coming, according to regional analysts, is to ensure Mr. Trump keeps Japan’s concerns high on his priorities list in his proposed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which the White House hopes will occur as early as next month.
Mr. Abe, a golfing partner of the president who was the first world leader to obtain a meeting with Mr. Trump after his surprise 2016 election, faces rising pressure back home to show that the personal relationship he has cultivated can pay off on issues such as security and trade.
“Shinzo Abe is coming to Mar-a-Lago to make sure he understands that the Americans will not abandon Japan in the course of any high-level negotiations with Pyongyang,” said Patrick Cronin, who heads the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
Mr. Trump reportedly informed Mr. Abe that he had agreed to meet personally with Mr. Kim as a South Korean delegation was announcing the breakthrough to reporters on the White House driveway.
The sting is even sharper for Japan because Mr. Trump declined to give Tokyo a waiver from steel and aluminum tariffs that the U. S. administration announced last month, even as allies such as the European Union, Canada, Australia and South Korea were given reprieves.
Richard Armitage, a top State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, told the Nikkei Asian Review in an interview Sunday that Mr. Trump and his foreign policy team must “think from South Korea’s and Japan’s point of view” as they get ready to meet with Mr. Kim.
“I would be ashamed of my president if he goes and gets a deal which helps U. S. security but doesn’t improve Japan’s,” Mr. Armitage said. “That’s not the right way to treat an ally, in my view.”
Mr. Cronin said Japan is wary that upcoming one-on-one meetings between Mr.
