PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Tuesday for their second bilateral summit at his Mar-a-Lago property, where they will hold crucial talks on trade and North Korea as both leaders grapple with their own scandals back home.
The two-day summit begins as White House officials work to determine whether Trump will soon meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose historic overture to U.S. officials last month marked a potential turnaround in the isolated regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Senior administration officials have repeatedly said the president has no plans to take pressure off North Korea until concrete steps toward denuclearization are taken and the two leaders have had a chance to meet face-to-face.
“We’re aiming for a summit in May or early June,” Matt Pottinger, a deputy adviser to Trump on Asian affairs, told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.
Pottinger said the summit between Trump and his Japanese counterpart offers both men an opportunity to discuss their objectives and national interests prior to the president’s meeting with Kim, who made a rare visit to China last month for preliminary talks with President Xi Jinping.
“Prime Minister Abe and the president are going to want to exchange views in advance of the summit with the North Korean leader,” Pottinger said. “Japanese security interests are American security interests.”
Hours before the president and Mrs. Trump welcomed Abe and Japan’s first lady to their beachside estate, news broke that North and South Korean officials had struck a potential agreement to end military conflict and establish regular summit meetings between both countries. Such a deal would hinge on full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
White House officials said the potential development was unlikely to complicate the president’s visit with Abe, and that U.S. officials have been closely tracking the overseas talks.
“The U.S. and South Korea are as much aligned and coordinated on their summit as we are on our summit,” Pottinger said.
Pottinger is one of several top aides joining Trump for his latest meeting with Abe, with whom he has spent more time with since entering office than any other foreign leader. Trump will also have National Economic Chairman Larry Kudlow, chief of staff John Kelly, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty on hand for his talks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kudlow and Lighthizer were asked by the president last week to launch a review of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade agreement that Trump pulled out of days after his inauguration but may now be open to rejoining. The issue is expected to dominate much of the president’s discussion about trade this week.
According to Kudlow, Japanese officials are open to re-admitting the U.S. to the agreement and intend to draw out the president’s proposed changes to the trade deal over the course of the next two days. Critics of the Trump administration have said it’s unlikely Japan will tolerate any dramatic modifications.
“These two are old friends. These two are democracies. These two are free-market democracies. I don’t want to lose sight of that. We’re here to help and be a friend to Japan,” Kudlow said of the U.S. and its longtime ally.
A White House source said the Abe summit is widely seen as a respite for the president from the unflattering developments surrounding his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and the Russia investigation. But the source said most of Trump’s communications team is worried about him drifting off-message during interactions with the Japanese leaders and the dozens of reporters who have traveled here to monitor the visit.
“Trade is the primary topic on the agenda. Will [Trump] stick to that? Who the hell knows,” the source said half-jokingly.
Meanwhile, Abe’s arrival in the U.S. marked a temporary break from the political pressure he faces in Japan. The embattled prime minister has watched his approval rating steadily decline and calls for his resignation increase amid accusations that he and his wife were involved in tampering of important government documents. According to one national poll, fewer than 27 percent of Japanese voters currently approve of the job Abe’s cabinet is doing.
A positive string of meetings with Trump, combined with developments on trade or assurances that Trump will demand the release of Japanese prisoners in North Korea when he meets with Kim, would give Abe a much-needed boost in his home country.
“One of his key cards has been his role as a global statesman and his influence on issues such as North Kotea [and] his relationship with the U.S.,” Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow at the Japanese Insitute of International Affairs, told CNBC.
Trump and Abe are slated to hold a joint press conference late Wednesday, as their 48-hour summit winds down. The two leaders will have dinner together both evenings and are expected to participate in a round of golf at the president’s nearby course at least once over the next two days.
