Trump to meet Japan leader Abe in Florida
President Donald Trump will welcome Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Mar-a-Lago this week in an effort to shore up their relationship amid strains in the U.S.-Japan alliance ahead of Trump’s potential summit with the leader of North Korea.
Abe is set to arrive Tuesday at Trump’s winter resort in Palm Beach, Florida, for two days of meetings as concerns mount in Tokyo that Trump’s risky diplomatic gambit with Kim Jong Un could undermine Japan’s security. Abe also was blindsided by Trump’s decision not to grant Japan a waiver on new steel and aluminum tariffs, as he did for other U.S. allies and partners.
The double-whammy amounted to a gut punch for Abe and left some in Tokyo questioning his strategy of cozying up to the mercurial American president. Abe was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after the election, and the two have met and spoken 20 times, more interactions than Trump has had with any other world leader. It is Abe’s second visit to Mar-aLago, after meetings and a round of golf last year.
Now, the question is whether Abe’s influence will endure in the face of the whirlwind geopolitical maneuvering of East Asian leaders, including South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has led the push for more diplomatic engagement with the Kim regime, to the consternation of Tokyo. Moon and Kim are scheduled to meet later this month, and Kim recently visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Takao Toshikawa, a veteran political journalist in Tokyo, said the conservative Abe’s immediate task was to use his face time with Trump to ameliorate fears of “Japan passing” — the notion that the United States is prepared to downgrade its bedrock security ally in favor of other priorities. Toshikawa employed the phrase “Japan dissing” to describe Trump’s recent moves.
“The summit next week will be the most important of his tenure,” he said, noting that it was difficult for Abe to prepare for the meeting because Trump is so unpredictable.
“If Trump makes rapid progress in his talks with Kim, that could put Abe in a very disadvantageous position. Abe is afraid of that,” Toshikawa said.