Abe, Trump may discuss currency issues: White House official

President Donald Trump is personally paying the tab for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

In the months since Trump’s election, the Japanese government has moved quickly to ensure that the new administration sees its relationship with Tokyo as serving core USA interests, even as Trump and his advisers seek to recalibrate those interests.

Some other leaders of America’s closest neighbors and allies, from Mexico to the United Kingdom, have been singed by their encounters with Trump. -Japanese trade balance and Trump’s call for a border tax on imports of Japanese products manufactured partially in Mexico or elsewhere outside the United States.

An administration official said the President will work to reassure Japan of the United States commitment following Defense Secretary James Mattis’ trip to the region, his first in office, this week. Trump has hurled the same accusation at China. “I would expect, certainly, for you to hear on that subject and in concrete terms that President Trump is committed to that treaty”, the official noted.

Abe is being accompanied by what Japanese officials tell VOA is a delegation unprecedented in size and scope. “We needed these assurances”. “They will stay out in town with the rest of the staff”, he said.

According to Akio Takahara, of the Graduate School for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo, for Abe the maintenance of the U.S.’s security umbrella is of paramount importance and any deviation from this or the alliance’s renegotiation would strike at the core of Japan’s relationship with the USA and its position in Asia.

“Talks are fine but I don’t think he should be playing golf”.

During a Cabinet meeting on February 1, Shinzo Abe said that he was going to discuss with President Trump a raft of economic issues, including how Japan could “help create new jobs in the USA, increase labor productivity and competitiveness of the American industrial sector”. “Our aim is to review and reaffirm the current relationship”, the official said. “Abe might say, ‘We have to play golf to build a relationship.’ But Japan has to show the world we have principles, and has to say what’s wrong is wrong, based on universal principles”, Tanaka said. Tokyo hopes that all this will sit well with President Trump because it is exactly what he is going for.

Trump cutting the check for Abe’s accommodations is not just out of generosity but a way to avoid potential conflicts of interest. The two have met once before, in NY after Trump was elected.

This time, “Abe will be bringing omiage”, said Goodman, referring to the traditional Japanese practice of gift-giving, “but in a big way”.

They plan to discuss job creation and Japanese investment following recent criticism from Mr Trump.

Also, Japan is an economic peer who can’t be easily pushed around, said HFE’s Weinberg. The prospect of a such a deal was foundational to Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Any economic package “will ultimately be created to win Trump’s understanding for a stronger alliance”.

“While personal relations between Abe and Trump are important, if Abe is seen as simply pandering to him it won’t be good for Japan”.

A senior US government official said in a telephone press conference on Thursday that Trump placed importance on automobile trade and was sure to put it on the agenda. “We need to set the record straight”.

His comments unnerved the currency markets.

On Friday, the Japanese prime minister will meet with business leaders and place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery before heading to the White House for his noon (1700 GMT) meeting with Trump.