Trump pays 'highest respect' to resigning Japanese PM Abe
29 August, 2020
US President Donald Trump on Friday (Aug 28) paid his "highest respect" to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and voiced concern over his "great friend" resigning for health reasons.
"I would like to pay my highest respect to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an extremely great friend of mine," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a campaign rally in New Hampshire.
"We've had an excellent relationship and I just feel very badly about any of it, because it must be very serious for him to leave."
"He loves his country so much and for him to leave, you know, I simply can't imagine what it is. He's an excellent gentleman and so I'm just paying my highest respect," Trump added.
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 a first term in office, and that he no more felt in a position to continue as prime minister.
Both leaders have met several times through 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 your pair.
Trump announced in September this past year that both allies had taken a significant step towards sealing a thorough new trade deal, after a year of negotiations between your global economic powers.
Abe was forced to leave office just one single 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, however the resignation was however a surprise.
He had been expected to stay in office until the end of his term as LDP leader in September 2021.
Even while recently as Friday morning, the government spokesman had seemed to dismiss concerns about Abe's health insurance and suggested he would stick to.
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