TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visits the White House on Thursday for meetings that offer US President Donald Trump a chance to lean on a key security partner for support in his Iran war, threatening to strain a decades-old alliance.
Takaichi is the first major ally set for face-to-face talks with Trump since he demanded that Japan, among a coalition of nations, send ships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz waterway, largely closed by Iran in the conflict.
“Takaichi is in a tight spot,” said David Boling, of the Asia Group consultancy in Tokyo and a former US trade negotiator with Japan during Trump’s first term as president.
“The biggest risk is that Trump publicly presses her for security commitments that she can’t deliver on.”
Japanese officials involved in the preparations said Takaichi had hoped to remind Trump of the dangers posed by a regionally assertive China prior to his visit there, initially planned near the end of March, but now delayed.
