Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke to Trump on the phone before his visit to Asia. They talked about strengthening the alliance and spending more on Japan’s defense.
On Saturday, the new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke by phone with the US President Donald Trump, who will visit Japan next week. She told him that strengthening the alliance between their countries is the “highest priority” of her administration at the diplomatic and security level, AFP and Kyodo reports.
“We agreed that we will strive to raise the Japanese-American alliance to a new level,” Takaičiová, who was elected by the lower house of parliament on Tuesday as Japan’s first female prime minister, told reporters.
Alliance with the USA
Takaichi also said that she considers Trump to be “a very bright and funny person.” She asked him for cooperation in solving the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens to North Korea, which occurred mainly in the 1970s and 1990s, as well as in building a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
In a post on the X Network, she called the interview with Trump “good and honest.”
Trump’s visit to Asia
Trump will visit Japan on Monday. He will stop there on his way to South Korea, where he plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The US president wants Tokyo and other allies to increase their military spending. In her first policy speech on Friday, Takaichi said Japan would spend two percent of gross domestic product on defense this fiscal year, bringing the government’s target two years ahead of schedule.
Summits in Southeast Asia
On Saturday, Takaičiová arrived in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, where the summit meeting of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will begin on Sunday, in which Trump will also participate. Participation in the subsequent APEC summit is also on the agenda.
