Ahead of a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President-elect Donald Trump will be going into the meeting with his cards close to his chest as the Japanese foreign embassy struggles to piece together who will be part of his Asia policy team.
"Chinese Ambassador is driving everyone crazy, asking who's in charge of China" – well someone should ask that.. https://t.co/poH8QfuDFw @FT
— Nicholas Butts (@Nicholas_Butts) November 16, 2016
Tamaki Tsukada, spokesman for the Japanese embassy, had informed the Financial Times that Japan had spent months working with the Trump team “through a number of important advisers in the area of foreign and security issues, though admittedly much less intensively compared to our contacts with the Clinton team”.
Infighting hits Trump’s foreign policy transition https://t.co/oCA5jYomtZ 😭😂😭 Who's in charge of Japan/ China Policy? No one that's who
— Joseph (@mindjitsu) November 16, 2016
The meeting between Trump and Abe will be the first meeting between Donald Trump and the leader of a foreign country since he was elected to the Presidency.
The report emphasized that the meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Abe was testament to those efforts to further improve relations with the President-elect.
(Photo Credit: Press Trust of India)
It is understood that dialogue between the Trump team and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s team has been limited to contact between Trump Tower executives as opposed to an officially recognized Washington Asia policy expert.
“We understand that a proper transition team is yet to be formed but we are confident that a strong foreign and security policy team will emerge in the coming weeks.” said Mr Tsukada.
(Photo: Express UK)
Mr Trump shocked the world earlier this year during an intense period of campaigning when he railed against America getting “ripped off” and protecting other nations and getting “paid peanuts”. See VIDEO:
Japan earlier this year when he said that Tokyo and Seoul should consider developing nuclear weapons to reduce the US burden in dealing with North Korea. He also said he might remove US troops from the countries unless they paid more towards their mutual defence.
Stories have also surfaced, with some news outlets reporting that Trump is considering controversial former U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, for Secretary of State.
Donald Trump leaning toward extreme militant John Bolton as secretary of state https://t.co/NYUCb79ExT
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 14, 2016
Trump’s stances on Asia have not been clearly elucidated as he has lacked support from major Republican national security and international relations intelligentsia over the course of his campaign, many of them who have connections with Washington establishment figures and had distanced himself from his at-times incendiary campaign.
Peter Navarro, an economics professor at the University of California who has been a long critic of Chinese trade practices, is the most prominent figure on the Trump team that could provide clues as to how Trump will continue to flesh out his brain trust on Asia:
Strong words by #Trump advisor Peter Navarro on need to defend Taiwan against China, America's strategic rival https://t.co/sjnWRirr15 @ussc
— Ashley Townshend (@ashleytownshend) November 11, 2016
China's black hearts and Beijing's dirty little secret—Donald Trump's "China muse," Peter Navarro, in his own words https://t.co/hty0bbvBzl
— Asia Pundits (@asiapundits) November 11, 2016
