Both US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were satisfied with the second visit of Mr. Trump to Japan. Next month, Trump will be there again to attend the G20 summit to be held in Osaka. Abe was hosted 3 times by Trump in America. That implied mutual confidence, close and effective relationship in the time not free of roughness between the US and Japan just to name a few, the intensification of bilateral trade conflict and the US's demands that Japan should pay more for its security and not continue to entirely rely on the US; or Japanese concerns that the US would bypass Japanese strategic and long-term interests when carrying out peace talks with North Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump renew their bond over golf in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 18. Photo: Nikkei
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Abe's special kind of diplomacy seemed to have succeeded. There is harmony in the atmosphere and consensus in the views between Trump and Abe on almost every item discussed by them. Trump believed that bilateral trade talks would be soon successfully concluded. Trump hailed the relations between the US and Japan now as "stronger, more powerful and closer than ever". They only disagreed with each other on the assessment of North Korea's new missile's launches. While Trump seemed not to care much about it, Abe took it seriously, but only with the aim to have Trump’s attention on Japan's deep concerns.
Trump’s latest trip to Japan did not open a new era in relationship between the US and Japan but consolidated it and made it to a very special one, of other kind and nature but much more special than the relationship between the US and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Obviously Abe has found the proper way to deal with Trump.
