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Remarks With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

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state.gov/secretary/rema…

PRIME MINISTER ABE: Secretary Pompeo, welcome back to Japan.

(Via interpreter) During my most recent trip to New York on the occasion of the UN General Assembly, I had very productive discussions with President Trump over dinner as well as our summit meeting.

And I believe that utilizing these opportunities, we could demonstrate to the world that the alliance between Japan and the United States has become more robust than ever.

I and Japan highly value that you decided to visit Japan right before your planned visit to North Korea at this time. Taking this opportunity, I would like to have thorough coordination with you on our respective policies toward North Korea...

as well as our efforts to address the abductions, nuclear and missile issues.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you. Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for hosting me here; I know it's a Saturday. I appreciate you and your team spending time with my team as well.

We think it’s very important, and we expect it will be very productive. It’s important for us to hear from you as we – as I travel to Pyongyang to make sure that we’re fully in sync with respect to missile programs, the CBW program.

We will bring up the issue of the abductees as well. And then we’ll share with you how we hope to proceed when we’re in Pyongyang tomorrow so we’ll have a full coordinated,

unified view of how to proceed, which will be what is needed if we’re going to be successful in denuclearizing North Korea.

And finally, President Trump wanted me to make sure and express how much he enjoyed the time he got to spend with you in New York.

And I wanted to tell you how excited I am about the openings that we now have to get our trade arrangements, our trade agreement in place. I think there’s a real opportunity. I think this is incredibly important for each of our two countries.

So thank you for hosting us again.