Ishiba, Trump hold talks on sidelines of G7 summit
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump held talks Monday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Canada, a Japanese official said.
Their half-hour meeting followed rounds of tariff negotiations at the ministerial level in which Japan called for a rethink of Trump's tariff policy.
Ishiba said before his meeting with Trump that he would make "maximum efforts" to reach a mutually beneficial deal. Trump, for his part, indicated that a "few new trade deals" would be in the offing, though he did not say they would include one with Japan.
The face-to-face meeting was their first since February, when Ishiba flew to Washington to sit down with Trump.
Trump said the talks went "well."
In a show of the importance both leaders attach to bilateral relations, Ishiba and Trump have spoken by phone four times since their first meeting as tariff negotiations led by their ministers continued.
Trump, who is known for his unpredictability, effectively approved the takeover of United States Steel Corp. by Nippon Steel Corp in a dramatic turn of events just days before the leaders were to meet at the two-day G7 gathering in Kananaskis.
The U.S. leader's tariff salvo, intended to rectify what he sees as imbalanced trade, has added a new twist to an alliance that has otherwise remained rock solid.
Japan and the United States are aiming for a "golden age" for bilateral relations by boosting defense and security cooperation in the face of a severe security environment in the Indo-Pacific and are working together on other key fronts such as artificial intelligence and chips.
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