Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi opened the new year by reaffirming the close coordination of the Japan-U.S. alliance during a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on the evening of Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the aim of making this year one that opens a new chapter in the history of the Japan-U.S. alliance, we agreed to further deepen the friendship between our two countries and broad-ranging Japan-U.S. cooperation encompassing the economy and security,\u201d Takaichi told reporters at the Prime Minister\u2019s Official Residence.<\/p>\n
She said it was \u201chighly significant\u201d to confirm the robust partnership of the bilateral alliance at the start of the new year.<\/p>\n
According to the Japanese government, while arrangements were being made for a New Year\u2019s phone call between the two leaders, the U.S. side requested that it be held on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
Takaichi is considering visiting the United States as early as March for the first time since taking office in October for a meeting with Trump.<\/p>\n
During the approximately 20-minute call, the two leaders agreed to work out specific arrangements for the prime minister\u2019s trip to the United States.<\/p>\n
The Japan-U.S. summit is aimed at reaffirming solidarity between the two countries ahead of Trump\u2019s scheduled visit to China in April for talks with President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump extended a renewed invitation for me to visit the United States,\u201d Takaichi told reporters. \u201cWe agreed to make concrete arrangements toward a spring visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Japan-China relations remain chilled as Beijing has stepped up pressure on Tokyo in protest to Takaichi\u2019s remarks that a Taiwan contingency could warrant a Japanese military response.<\/p>\n
When he last talked with Takaichi by phone on Nov. 25, Trump expressed the view that it was necessary to calm the situation.<\/p>\n
In late December, China conducted military exercises around Taiwan. Japan\u2019s Foreign Ministry conveyed its concerns to China, saying such actions heighten tensions in the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
After the Jan. 2 phone call, Takaichi said the two leaders confirmed the close Japan-U.S. partnership amid the current international situation, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region. But she did not disclose specific details of the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi opened the new year by reaffirming the close coordination of the Japan-U.S. alliance during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[65395,2122,12,285,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-670270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-asahi-shimbun","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115828882338135990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}