UK Edition
Japan PM Shinzo Abe has 'great confidence' in Donald Trump after meeting president-elect and daughter Ivanka
Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, said his meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday - the first by a foreign leader - convinced him the US president-elect was someone "in whom I can have great confidence".
Mr Abe met with Mr Trump in New York, where the incoming president is working on setting up an administration after his surprise election victory last week that has injected new uncertainty into old US alliances.
"We were able to have a very candid talk over a substantial amount of time. We held it in a very warm atmosphere," Mr Abe told reporters after their meeting, which was also attended by Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
"The talks made me feel sure that we can build a relationship of trust. Alliances cannot function without trust. I am convinced Mr Trump is a leader in whom I can have great confidence."
The Japanese leader gave few details of the meeting but added the two agreed to meet again for deeper talks on a wider range of issues.
Photographs taken inside the ornate meeting room at Trump Tower showed Mr Abe and an interpreter along with Mr Trump, his daughter Ivanka, her husband and Trump adviser Mr Kushner, and Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.
A senior Trump official said on Thursday that Mr Trump had offered Lt Gen Flynn the national security adviser position.
Japan is one of Washington's closest allies but Mr Trump alarmed Tokyo policymakers during the campaign by musing about pulling the thousands of US troops from the region and suggesting that officially pacifist Japan may need nuclear weapons.
The Japanese leader was seeking reassurances over the future of US-Japan security and trade relations after the Republican also suggested he would demand allies such as Japan and South Korea contribute more to the cost of basing US troops in their countries.
Such comments have worried Japan at a time when the threat from North Korea is rising, and China is challenging the US-led security status quo in the Pacific.
Mr Trump also vowed during the election to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed vast trade pact backed by outgoing President Barack Obama and which Mr Abe had made a top priority.
The State Department has said it had yet to hear from Trump's transition team, raising the prospect of the Republican holding the meeting with Abe without any input from career diplomats with deep experience dealing with Japan.
Taro Aso, Japanese Finance Minister,said on Friday in Tokyo that it was beneficial for Mr Abe to meet Mr Trump before he becomes president, given the importance of Japan-US relations.
Abe adviser Katsuyuki Kawai told Reuters he had spoken to several Trump advisers and lawmakers since arriving in Washington on Monday and had been told: "We don't have to take each word that Mr. Trump said publicly literally."