International News

TOKYO, (AMILLAT+PP/AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe is to meet US president-elect Donald Trump next week in New York, officials said Thursday, after phone talks between the two following the billionaire’s shock election win.
Abe and Trump spoke for about 20 minutes and tentatively set a date
of November 17 for the meeting, just before Abe goes to Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a Japanese foreign ministry official told AFP.
During his election campaign, Trump raised eyebrows in Japan by
calling on the country to pay more to support the cost of stationing US forces.
He even suggested that Japan might want to become a nuclear power to
counter unpredictable neighbour North Korea, which has repeatedly conducted
nuclear and ballistic missile tests to international condemnations and
prompting UN sanctions.
That statement shocked many in Japan, the only country in the world
to have been attacked with nuclear weapons.
Trump has also rejected the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal
pushed by President Barack Obama and which Abe hopes his parliament will ratify soon.
Abe congratulated Trump soon after his victory on Wednesday, vowing
that the countries would maintain their close relationship, calling them
“unshakeable allies”.
During their phone talks, Abe “talked about the importance of the
bilateral relationship and the Japan-US alliance”, which he stressed underpins the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region, the foreign ministry official said.