INTERVIEW: Ex-Trump Adviser Urges Japan to View Trade Deal as Investment

Washington, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)–Japan should perceive its trade deal with the United States as an “investment” for the future of the bilateral alliance, Alexander Gray, former deputy assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump in his first term, said. “If we do not have broad-based support…for this alliance, we will both suffer tremendously in the decades ahead,” Gray said in a recent interview. “I would encourage my Japanese friends to look at this as an investment in the future health of the relationship and the alliance,” he said of the deal. Gray called Japan the United States’ “most consequential ally in the Indo-Pacific.” Much of an upcoming meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi “will be about the trade deal” and “where we go from here to operationalize the trade deal.” “There’s also going to be a substantial discussion about shared security threats, and I think the president is going to use this as an opportunity with the new prime minister to discuss how the United States and Japan can accelerate the alliance,” Gray added. He pointed out that Trump was highly critical of Japanese trade policy in the 1980s, believing that there was imbalance in Japan-U.S. trade. The trade deal is “designed, I think, from his perspective, to correct that.” If the deal is executed, it will bring about a “very exciting new era of economic cooperation that goes hand in hand with our security cooperation,” he added. Gray said that Tokyo should consider what sets of defense capabilities Japan and the United States need to deter Chinese aggression in the East and South China seas as well as the Taiwan Strait. What matters is how Japan defines its ability to defend itself and come to the assistance of the United States, he added. Gray expressed hopes that Takaichi will become a “strong female conservative leader who the president has a bond with, the way he does with (Italian) Prime Minister (Giorgia) Meloni.” Trump and Takaichi may enjoy a relationship similar to that of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]