speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One as he flies from
Manchester, New Hampshire to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, August
28, 2020, following a campaign rally.SAUL LOEB / AFP
US President Donald Trump on Friday paid his “highest
respect” to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and voiced concern
over his “great friend” resigning for health reasons.
“I want to pay my highest respect to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
a very great friend of mine,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force
One as he returned from a campaign rally in New Hampshire.
“We’ve had a great relationship and I just feel very badly about
it, because it must be very severe for him to leave.”
“He loves his country so much and for him to leave, you know, I
just can’t imagine what it is. He’s a great gentleman and so I’m
just paying my highest respect,” Trump added.
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Abe announced earlier he was ending his record-breaking tenure,
kicking off a leadership race in the world’s third-largest
economy.
He said he was suffering a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis
that forced him to cut short the first term in office, and that he
no longer felt able to continue as prime minister.
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The two leaders have met several times during the US president’s
term, and staffers have hailed the “unprecedented” relationship
between Trump and his “golf buddy.”
A Japanese diplomat said last year the frequency of contact
demonstrated the “unprecedented level of close personal relations”
between the pair.
Trump announced in September last year that the two allies had
taken a major step towards sealing a comprehensive new trade deal,
after a year of negotiations between the global economic
powers.
Abe was forced to leave office just one year after becoming the
country’s youngest-ever prime minister but has since become Japan’s
longest-serving premier.
Speculation about his political future had intensified after two
recent hospital visits for unspecified health checks, but the
resignation was nonetheless a surprise.
He had been expected to stay in office until the end of his term
as LDP leader in September 2021.
Even as recently as Friday morning, the government spokesman had
appeared to dismiss concerns about Abe’s health and suggested he
would stay on.
AFP
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