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MANCHESTER, United States: On Friday (August 28), US President Donald Trump paid his “highest respect” to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, expressing concern about the resignation of his “great friend” for reasons of health.
“I want to pay my greatest respect to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a great friend of mine,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a campaign rally in New Hampshire.
“We have had a great relationship and I feel very bad about it, because it must be very severe for him to leave.”
“He loves his country so much and for him to go, you know, I can’t imagine what he is. He is a great gentleman and therefore I am paying my utmost respect to him,” Trump added.
Abe announced earlier that he would end his unprecedented tenure, launching a race for leadership in the world’s third-largest economy.
He said he was suffering from a recurrence of ulcerative colitis that forced him to interrupt a first term in office, and that he no longer felt capable of continuing as prime minister.
The two leaders have met several times during the US president’s tenure, and staff have praised the “unprecedented” relationship between Trump and his “golf partner.”
A Japanese diplomat said last year that the frequency of the contacts demonstrated the “unprecedented level of close personal relationships” between the couple.
Trump announced in September last year that the two allies had taken an important step toward sealing a comprehensive new trade agreement, after a year of negotiations between the world’s economic powers.
Abe was forced to leave office just one year after becoming the country’s youngest prime minister, but he has since become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
Speculation about his political future had intensified after two recent visits to the hospital for unspecified health checks, but the resignation was nonetheless a surprise.
READ: Election of the party to elect the successor of Japanese Prime Minister Abe in mid-September: Media
He was expected to remain in office until the end of his term as LDP leader in September 2021.
Even as recently as Friday morning, the government spokesman seemed to dismiss concerns about Abe’s health and suggested that he stay.
