BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL
ON PRESIDENT TRUMP'S MEETING WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN
Via Teleconference
April 25, 2019
5:07 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. Thank you, everybody, for joining. I’m [senior administration official].
This is a background briefing by a senior administration official about the -- kind of as a preview for tomorrow’s meeting between President Trump and the Prime Minister of Japan.
The idea is to give a quick read-ahead of what’s going to happen, so we are going to be providing a quick preview, but we will not be giving Q&A at the end of this.
This will be on background. With that, let me pass it over to my colleague for his remarks, and then we’ll be concluding the call.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, there. Good afternoon, everyone.
So, on Friday, tomorrow, April 26th, President Trump is going to host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at the White House for a series of bilateral meetings, which will include national security and foreign policy advisors, as well as key economic and trade officials in some of those meetings.
This is really about deepening our global partnership with Japan. It’s also about our alliance, our partnership, and the President’s personal friendship with Prime Minister Abe.
President Trump has consulted closely with Prime Minister Abe since the beginning of his presidency. The two leaders have met on multiple occasions and held dozens of phone calls or meetings since President Trump has been in office.
So it’s an important opportunity for the leaders to exchange views on recent developments with North Korea as well, and to coordinate future actions. And those future actions, of course, would also include consultations with our close partner and U.S. ally, the Republic of Korea, aimed at achieving the final, fully-verified denuclearization of North Korea.
We expect that President Trump and Prime Minister Abe will also review recent developments in the region and discuss next steps in realizing their shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, particularly through cooperation on energy, digital connectivity, and infrastructure investment.
We expect them to review recent progress in strengthening our alliance, including the announcements made during the recent U.S.-Japan security consultative committee -- that’s the so-called “2+2” meeting, involving the Secretaries of Defense and Secretary of State, which was held in Washington last week. And we’ll discuss, also, how to further expand our cooperation around the world.
We expect that the leaders will exchange views on how the two countries can enhance their trade and investment ties as well and build an economic partnership that’s equal to the world-class alliance.
Remember that the United States and Japanese economies account for approximately 30 percent or so, or roughly a third, of global GDP, which means that a strong bilateral relationship is key for global peace, stability, and prosperity.
The leaders will likely exchange views as well on priorities for the G20 meeting in Osaka in Japan in late June. And, you know, they’ve got this meeting tomorrow, and just a month later, President Trump, as we’ve announced, and the First Lady will be making a trip to Japan as the first state guests following the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito. The new emperor will be enthroned on May 1st, next week, and President Trump and the First Lady’s trip will follow just a few weeks after that.
So we recognize that this is really a great honor for the United States and so we imagine the leaders will exchange views on how to (inaudible) state visit in May to deepen the bonds between the American and Japanese people.
The visit tomorrow is an official working visit. Following the business meetings that the two will have, we understand that the President and the First Lady and Prime Minister Abe and Mrs. Abe will have a private dinner. And that also, by the way, coincides with the First Lady’s birthday.
So thank you very much for dialing in. I’ll hand the phone back to my colleague.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: All right. Thank you, everybody. Again, as we stated at the top, this is all on background, attributable to a senior administration official. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at the press office.
Thank you very much for joining.
END 5:12 P.M. EDT
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