PALM BEACH (Florida), Dec 16 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday met with Akie Abe, the widow of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, his wife said.
According to Kyodo News Agency, the former president, set to return to the White House for his second term on Jan 20, and Melania Trump are believed to have hosted a private dinner for her. It is the first known meeting between Trump and a Japanese individual since he won the Nov 5 presidential election.
"It was a privilege to host Mrs Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago once again," Trump's wife said on X, sharing a photo of the three, with Akie Abe in the middle. "We fondly remembered her late husband, former Prime Minister Abe, and honoured his remarkable legacy."
Her visit to Trump's estate took place about a month after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was unable to hold an in-person meeting with the president-elect on his way back to Tokyo from South America, despite his hopes of doing so.
Speaking to reporters in Peru after attending an international meeting, Ishiba at the time said Trump's team had explained that the president-elect could not hold talks with him before taking office due to legal constraints.
Since then, however, Trump has held talks with other world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Among world leaders, Trump was on particularly good terms with the late Prime Minister Abe during his first presidency.
Their warm relationship began shortly after the 2016 presidential election when Abe rushed to Trump Tower in New York to meet with the president-elect and presented him with a golden golf club.
Abe, who joined him for golf on multiple occasions, resigned in 2020 for health reasons. He was fatally shot during an election campaign speech about two years later.
In February 2017, following a meeting in Washington, the two couples flew to Florida on Air Force One and ate dinner together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion.
After enjoying golf the following day, Abe and Trump held an impromptu joint press conference due to North Korea's test-firing of a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, the first such launch since Trump took office.
Japanese officials have said the widow's meeting with the Trumps was arranged privately, emphasising that there was no government involvement.
Ahead of the meeting, several major US media organisations reported that Trump would host a private dinner for her on Sunday, with CNN saying that the two have maintained a close relationship ever since Abe's death.
Trump has regularly called her to check on her well-being, CNN reported, citing a source close to the president-elect.
The current Japanese leader, who assumed office in October, was a vocal critic of Abe and the late prime minister's now-defunct faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Ishiba now hopes to hold face-to-face talks with Trump at the earliest possible time after his inauguration.
-- BERNAMA-KYODO
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