“The American people share the Japanese people’s sense of loss. During his tenure, Prime Minister Abe has done everything to bring the US-Japan relationship to new heights,” Mr. Blinken told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, made a brief visit to Tokyo to personally express his condolences, those of US President Joe Biden as well as “the American people” in Japan, three days after the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
“The American people share the Japanese people’s sense of loss. During his tenure, Prime Minister Abe has done everything to bring the US-Japan relationship to new heights,” Mr. Blinken told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“The US and Japan are more than allies, we are friends. And when one friend suffers, the other goes to see him,” added the US Foreign Minister, explaining that he handed Mr. Kishida letters of condolence from President Biden to Shinzo Abe’s family.
Shinzo Abe, a figurehead of the Japanese right, the archipelago’s longest-serving prime minister (2006-2007, 2012-2020), has been a passionate supporter of strengthening military and diplomatic cooperation with the US. He was killed by a gunman on Friday, in the middle of his campaign speech in Nara (west), aged 67.
There are still many dark spots about the motives of the accused killer, a 41-year-old Japanese national who was taken into custody moments after he opened fire.
The US top diplomat made the unscheduled stopover in Tokyo while returning to the US from a tour of Southeast Asia.
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