
U.S. President Donald Trump salutes as he arrives at Palm Seashore Worldwide Airport in West Palm Seashore, Fla., Jan. 31, as he travels to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. AFP-Yonhap
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned Friday that Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will go to him subsequent week on the White Home, and he appears to be like ahead to the dialog.
„They’re coming in to talk to me and I’m trying ahead to it,“ Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace.
The assembly is predicted to happen Friday, Feb. 7, Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported Thursday, including that the leaders of the 2 long-time allies will talk about strengthening financial and safety cooperation.
Ishiba, who took workplace in October, somewhat over a month earlier than Trump’s reelection, is eager to construct a private relationship early within the U.S. president’s second time period and deepen Japan’s key U.S. alliance amid shared issues about China’s rising energy, individuals conversant in the matter mentioned.
Ishiba plans to focus on how Japanese firms create jobs within the U.S. and will increase in Japan’s protection price range, the individuals mentioned.
Shinzo Abe, a predecessor of Ishiba’s as prime minister who launched important protection reforms and was assassinated in 2022, loved a powerful rapport with Trump throughout the latter’s first time period.
Analysts say Ishiba will wish to construct on that regardless of issues about Trump’s threats of tariffs to appropriate commerce imbalances.
Officers conversant in the matter advised Reuters that Japan is contemplating providing help for a $44 billion gasoline pipeline in Alaska because it seeks to court docket Trump and forestall potential commerce friction.
Japan has doubts concerning the viability of the proposed 800-mile pipeline, which Trump has mentioned is vital for U.S. prosperity and safety, given the general prices of the gasoline relative to different sources, however is ready to supply to discover a deal if requested, the officers mentioned.
Tokyo could embrace such a dedication amongst different concessions, akin to shopping for extra U.S. gasoline and rising protection spending and manufacturing funding within the U.S., to scale back its $56 billion bilateral commerce surplus and stave off the specter of tariffs, one of many officers mentioned.

Shigeru Ishiba, Japan’s prime minister, speaks throughout a information convention on the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Nov. 11, 2024. Reuters-Yonhap
Trump’s protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, spoke by telephone with Japanese Protection Minister Gen Nakatani, Thursday, and Japan can have been heartened by the Pentagon hailing the U.S.-Japan alliance as „the cornerstone of peace and safety within the Indo-Pacific area“ in its readout of the decision.
„The 2 officers reiterated the significance of deepening protection cooperation to strengthen deterrence and to advance a shared imaginative and prescient for a free and open Indo-Pacific area,“ the Pentagon assertion mentioned.
Abe was the primary overseas chief to carry a summit with Trump after his 2016 election win , however Ishiba is about to be crushed to that accolade this time by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Nicholas Szechenyi, head of the Japan program at Washington’s Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research assume tank, mentioned Ishiba’s major goal can be to emphasize that Tokyo will stay a dependable ally of the U.S.
He mentioned the summit would have a strategic affect in signaling that alliances will stay a elementary pillar of U.S. technique in Asia with U.S.-Japan ties at its core.
„Ishiba’s case is easy: Japan is an ally that’s stepping up by investing extra in its personal protection, advancing safety cooperation with the U.S., and investing within the U.S. economic system,“ he mentioned.
Szechenyi mentioned the financial agenda might take middle stage.
„A number of concrete proposals from Ishiba, perhaps on vitality imports or new investments in American manufacturing, might assist him additional Japan’s popularity as an financial associate and set the tone for a productive U.S.-Japan relationship beneath Trump,“ he mentioned. (Reuters)