“Abe was the only world leader to meet Trump before his inauguration – at Trump Tower in New York – and is the second, after Theresa May, to do so since the president took office”
”Golf diplomacy: Japan's Abe hopes for strokes of genius to seal Trump trade pact”
Donald Trump may have found the perfect golf partner in the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. If rumours about the US president’s fairway gamesmanship are to be believed, Abe is likely to turn a blind eye to any skullduggery on the links in Florida this weekend.
“We’re going to have a round of golf, which is a great thing,” Trump said in an interview this week with Westwood One Sports Radio. “That’s the one thing about golf – you get to know somebody better on a golf course than you will over lunch.”
Abe will not go to Washington empty-handed. Accompanied by his foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, and finance minister, Taro Aso, he is expected to directly appeal to Trump by unveiling an ambitious policy package that could create 700,000 US jobs through private-public investment in high-speed trains and other infrastructure.
With so much at stake, Abe is one of the few world leaders to have refrained from criticising Trump’s immigration policy. Instead, he will appeal to Trump’s business instincts with cautiously worded reminders of Japanese automakers’ huge investments in the US economy.
This weekend’s talks are the culmination of an Abe charm offensive that began with a meeting with the then president-elect at Trump Tower in New York in November, during which the two men laid the foundations for their “golf diplomacy”. Trump gave Abe a golf shirt; the prime minister reciprocated with a $3,700 gold-coloured golf club.
This weekend’s jaunt to Florida, for which Trump is reportedly footing the bill, will not be the first time Japanese and US leaders have attempted to bond over a game of golf.
