FOCUS: Abe Fails in Efforts to Serve as Bridge in Divided G-7

June 11, 2018

Charlevoix, Canada- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to serve as a bridge in a divided Group of Seven have ended in failure as U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew his endorsement of a G-7 joint statement.

The United States clashed with other G-7 countries over trade issues from the first day of the G-7 summit in Charlevoix, eastern Canada, which closed Saturday.

The top leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States on Friday night made the unusual move of holding an unscheduled session, because preparations for a joint statement had not progressed due to the spat. They also had similar talks early next morning.

Abe later said he had never experienced such sessions in a G-7 summit. The Charlevoix gathering was the seventh summit he attended as prime minister.

In the Friday night session, Trump seemed to have eased his stance after a war of words over trade in a session in the afternoon, informed sources said.

Now Trump even said he would follow what Abe would say, the sources said, adding that the remark removed the stumbling block to the joint statement.

Abe proposed that the statement call for the promotion of a rules-based trade system, urging Trump and the remaining G-7 leaders to accept this language.

"The prime minister exerted leadership and created a mood that enabled the adoption of the joint statement," a Japanese source said.

After the communique was adopted, however, Trump said on Twitter that he has instructed U.S. representatives to the G-7 summit not to endorse the statement, disappointing Japanese officials.

He made the U-turn after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted the G-7 gathering, told a news conference on Saturday that U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs are insulting.

Abe attaches importance to the unity of the G-7 because Japan has leveraged its status as the only G-7 member from Asia in maintaining its key role in the international community, Japanese sources said.

If the G-7 fails to send out a united message, Japan's influence also weakens, the sources added. Jiji Press