While serving as prime minister of Japan, the late Shinzo Abe worked with George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump as a key ally in addressing international security issues, particularly the push to denuclearize North Korea.
Abe visited Camp David, Mar-a-Lago, and Pearl Harbor while serving as prime minister between 2006 and 2007, and again from 2012 until his resignation in 2020. He was assassinated on a street in Nara, western Japan, on Friday morning.
After meeting with President Bush at Camp David in April 2007, Abe told reporters, “We did take a lot of time to discuss North Korean nuclear issues.” We committed to working together to force North Korea to completely give up its nuclear weapons in order to achieve a more stable and peaceful Korean Peninsula.
In order to discuss security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, where China has grown to be a threat due to its territorial claims in the South China Sea, Abe and his American counterpart continued their one-on-one meetings throughout Obama’s presidency.
SHINZO ABE, A former prime minister of Japan, was assassinated during a campaign speech.
Getty Images/Charles Ommanney
When Obama’s second term came to an end, Abe then joined him in Pearl Harbor, where they both laid wreaths and threw flower petals into the ocean.
SHINZO ABE, JAPAN’S KILLED by gunfire, is remembered by world leaders.
During the visit in December 2016, Abe expressed his sincere condolences to the spirits of all the brave men and women who lost their lives as a result of a war that started in this location as well as to the souls of those who died here.
On December 27, 2016, in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. President Barack Obama speaks as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe watches at Kilo Pier of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam. Abe is the first Japanese prime minister to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor with a president of the United States.
Getty Images/Kent Nishimura
Abe and Trump met twice at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida following Trump’s inauguration.
SHINZO ABE, ‘A UNIFIER LIKE NO OTHER,’ WHO ‘CHERISHED HIS MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY,’ IS MOURNED BY TRUMP
Abe referred to a North Korean ballistic missile launch as “absolutely intolerable” during the initial visit in February 2017.
The following year, Abe and Trump met at Mar-a-Lago once more to discuss a variety of issues, including how to approach North Korea.
At the time, Trump and Abe said, “South Korea is meeting and has plans to meet with North Korea to see if they can end the war.” They have my approval for that.
