Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump agreed in a telephone conversation Thursday to arrange a bilateral meeting Nov. 17 in New York, according to the Japanese government.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told reporters after the call that Abe and Trump confirmed their resolve to closely work together to ensure peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and discussed the role of the Japan-U.S. alliance in bilateral relations.
Trump’s defeat of Democrat and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s election has prompted concern over how he will handle Japan-U.S. relations, given his lambasting of Japan’s trade and security practices during the campaign.
In the roughly 20-minute conversation, Abe stressed to the Republican businessman that “a strong Japan-U.S. alliance is an indispensible presence that supports peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” according to Hagiuda.
Trump told Abe that Japan and the United States have a special partnership and he wants to strengthen that special relationship, Hagiuda said.
