Surprise and alliance: What the Trump-Takaichi meeting reveals
The US-Israeli war loomed over every exchange between the US president and Japanese prime minister
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WHEN Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived at the White House on Mar 19, the meeting was meant to be a routine show of unity, not a stress test. It became both.
The two leaders had been hoping to build on momentum from US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Tokyo, which framed the US-Japan alliance as entering a “golden era”.
Instead, the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran cast a long shadow over every exchange. Takaichi herself had warned lawmakers before departing Tokyo that she expected the meeting to be “very difficult”.
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