US President Donald Trump has reportedly urged Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to avoid further escalating a diplomatic row with China, multiple media outlets report – citing officials from both sides briefed on a phone call between the two leaders.
The two leaders spoke earlier this week, shortly after Trump’s call with President Xi Jinping. In his conversation with Xi, Trump reportedly emphasised that the US fully understood “how important the Taiwan question is to China.”
Takaichi provoked strong backlash from Beijing earlier this month when she said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan would threaten Japan and could justify a military response. Beijing has sharply condemned the comments. It has since warned its citizens not to travel to the country and resumed a suspension of Japanese seafood imports.
[See more: China suspends Japanese seafood imports again over Taiwan comments]
The sources quoted said Trump did not make specific demands of Takaichi but expressed concern about further inflaming tensions at a time when the White House was trying to maintain a tenuous truce in its trade war with China.
The White House issued a statement from Trump to the Wall Street Journal stressing that strong US-China ties were “also very good for Japan, who is our dear and close ally.”
On Wednesday, Takaichi told Japan’s parliament she hadn’t intended to “mention any specifics” when she made her comment about Taiwan. She has, however, refused to retract the comment.
