Japan PM Abe declines to say if he backed Trump for Nobel Prize

Mr Shinzo Abe has worked hard to build a personal rapport with Mr Donald Trump and was one of the first world leaders to embrace him after the 2016 US presidential election. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declined to say whether he nominated Mr Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, after the US President credited the Japanese leader with doing so last week.

Mr Abe, who has worked hard to build a personal rapport with Mr Trump, walked a fine line during a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday (Feb 18) while responding to Mr Trump's remark.

"I am not saying it's not true," he told an opposition lawmaker, adding that the Nobel committee doesn't reveal nominations and he would refrain from commenting.

Mr Abe praised Mr Trump for his diplomacy with North Korea and helping to protect Japan, which relies on the US military for defence.

"President Trump has acted decisively towards resolving the issues of the North Korean nuclear and missile problems," Mr Abe said.

Mr Abe was one of the first world leaders to embrace Mr Trump after the 2016 presidential election. Even though surveys in Japan show high public disapproval of Mr Trump, there has been no major backlash to the US President potentially visiting Japan this year, while such visits have touched off protests in places such as Britain.

Mr Abe's efforts to build one-on-one ties with Mr Trump have shown their limits. Japan was forced to accept bilateral trade talks with the US after Mr Trump threatened tariffs on its vital auto industry. The US Commerce Department is expected to deliver a report as early as this week on the security risk posed by auto imports.

In a speech on border security in the White House's Rose Garden last Friday, Mr Trump said Mr Abe had shown him a copy of a five-page letter he sent to "the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize".

The President was responding to a question on progress made since last year's historic summit with North Korea.

Mr Trump is planning to have a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Feb 27-28 after an unprecedented summit last year. Their June meeting in Singapore led to a joint statement on North Korea's denuclearisation, but the words were met by no concrete steps to roll back Pyongyang's atomic ambitions.

The Hanoi meeting brings both the promise of a less-dangerous North Korea and the potential peril of a weak deal that leaves Japan exposed to Mr Kim's weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Abe said Mr Trump raised Japan's concerns about its citizens abducted decades ago by North Korea when he met Mr Kim. Mr Abe told Parliament he would do everything possible to work with Mr Trump to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile problems as well as the abduction issue.

Meanwhile, Kyodo reported that Mr Trump is expected to be invited to Japan in May, possibly making him the first foreign state guest to meet Crown Prince Naruhito after his planned accession to the throne.

Citing a Japanese government source, Kyodo reported on Monday that the Japanese government is apparently seeking to demonstrate strong Japan-US ties by receiving Mr Trump on May 26 as the first foreign head of state to be treated with utmost courtesy after the Imperial accession on May 1.

If the visit happens, Mr Trump would visit Japan twice in around a month, as he is also expected to attend the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in late June.

Crown Prince Naruhito, 58, will succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne after Emperor Akihito, 85, abdicates on April 30, the first living Japanese monarch to do so in about two centuries.

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