Washington:
President Donald Trump threatened the rates for Japanese goods such as the American trade deficit with Tokyo on Friday because he met Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Washington.
Ishiba, who is only the second foreign leader who visited the White House since Trump returned to power, praised the American president when he tried to build a bond with the Mercurial Trump.
While they met in the Oval Office, Ishiba greeted the “fearless presence of Trump, that you got up and you fist high in the air” after the Republican survived a murder attempt last year.
The Japanese Premier-Wiens country is an important American ally against an emerging China and a nuclear armed North Korea-Zei that his country was the largest investor in the United States and would set up his expenditure.
But Trump insisted that he wanted “equality” in the trade balance between the two countries – and said “yes” when he was asked if rates could follow if no progress was made.
Trump also said that the two would discuss the thorny issue of the blocked takeover bid from Nippon Steel of US Steel.
The president previously supported the decision of his predecessor Joe Biden to stop the deal, but American media reported that he could admit.
It is unlikely that a recognized “geek” and model Warship fan, Ishiba, Trump’s close relationship with former prime minister and golf size Shinzo Abe replicates in the first term of the US president.
But Trump said Abe, who was murdered in 2022, had “enormous respect” for Ishiba.
‘Golden Age’
The key to Ishiba will be to protect Japan against the rates that Trump has beaten on China, then imposed on Mexico and Canada, and promised to raise on the European Union.
“It would be great if we could confirm that we would work together for the development of this region and the world, and for peace,” Ishiba said reporters in Tokyo before the trip.
The soft spoken, cigarette smoke ishiba hopes that Japanese investments in the United States will rely on the policy of “America First” of Trump.
The leaders are expected to issue a joint statement that promises to build a “golden age” of bilateral relations, reported the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, which reflects the slogan of the inaugural speech by the US president.
Ishiba is also set to tell Trump that Japan will increase defensive purchases from the United States, according to the Nikkei report.
Japan is one of Washington’s best allies in Asia, with around 54,000 American soldiers stationed in the country.
Under Abe, Japan was protected against some of Trump’s more punitive tendencies, such as sudden trade wars and pressure to increase the financial contributions to organizing American soldiers.
Days after Trump’s first election victory, Abe hurried to deliver a gilded golf club. Trump also organized Abe’s widow Akie for dinner in his Mar-A-Lago Resort in Florida last December.
An official from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Tokyo that “we hope that the leaders will be able to build up a relationship of personal trust.”
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)