Japan PM Shinzo Abe Aims To Strengthen Alliance With United States Under Donald Trump
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking in parliament hours before
US president-elect Donald Trump takes office, said on Friday he wanted
to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance.
Trump sparked worries in Tokyo and the
rest of the Asia-Pacific with campaign comments which included a pledge
to make allies pay more for the security provided by US forces and
opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
“The Japan-US alliance has been, is and
will be the cornerstone of our country’s diplomatic and security
policies. This is an immutable principle,” Abe said in his policy speech
at the start of the regular parliament session. “I am aiming to visit
the United States as soon as possible to further fortify the bond of
alliance together with new President Trump.”
Abe met with Trump in New York after the election in November and called him a “trustworthy leader”.
In his speech to parliament, the prime
minister repeated his support for TPP, which will go into deep freeze if
the United States drops out. “As a flag bearer for free trade, we will
build an economic system of the 21st century based on fair rules. The
TPP agreement sets the standard for that purpose and serves as the
foundation for future economic cooperation,” he said.
Japan has ratified the TPP and on
Friday notified New Zealand, secretariat for the TPP, it had completed
the domestic procedures for the pact, becoming the first country among
the 12 signatory nations to do so. New Zealand has ratified the TPP, but
not completed the whole domestic procedures.
Koichi Hamada, an adviser to Abe and
emeritus professor of economics at Yale University, told Reuters that
Japan should push back if Trump bases trade and other economic policy on
“wrong economics”, in an unusually direct expression of concern about
potential protectionism.
Echoing the sentiment in Abe’s speech,
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called strengthening the Japan-US
alliance key to regional peace and prosperity, and said Japan is ready
to play a role as a stabilising power in a world ripe for change.
“Uncertainty is growing in the
international community, while Japan has conducted stable politics and
diplomacy over the past four years and increased its international
presence,” Kishida said in his foreign policy speech. “As a stable
power, Japan needs to work with countries it shares fundamental values
with and take a leading role in the international community, so that
this ... will be the year of advancement of Japan’s national interest
and of global peace and prosperity.”
Abe’s ruling coalition enjoys a
two-thirds majority in parliament’s powerful lower house, while the
transition of power in the United States, key elections this year in
France and Germany and Britain’s departure from the European Union are
making the global economic and political outlook uncertain.
Trump’s inauguration ceremony will take place later on Friday in Washington, which braces for more than a quarter-million protesters expected during the New York real estate tycoon’s swearing-in.
Following the speeches by Abe and
Kishida, Finance Minister Taro Aso pledged to stick to the government’s
target of achieving a balanced budget in the fiscal year ending in March
2021, by pursuing both economic growth and fiscal consolidation.
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