By Trevor Hunnicutt, John Geddie and Tim Kelly
TOKYO (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he hoped to add a trade deal with China to a slew of pacts he has already struck during a visit to Asia this week, as he arrived in Tokyo for a royal welcome.
Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and will conclude his trip in a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
Negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said, news that drove Asian stocks to record peaks.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One just before it landed in the Japanese capital ahead of a meeting with Emperor Naruhito.
Wearing a gold tie and blue suit, Trump shook hands with officials awaiting him on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps and waves before boarding the presidential helicopter for the meeting at the Imperial Palace.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was among the travelling delegation, told reporters the overall framework of a deal with South Korea was also done but would not be finalised this week.
Trump has already landed a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.
Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase U.S. pickup trucks, soybeans and gas at a summit meeting on Tuesday.
Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in their first telephone call on Saturday.
Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, adding, “I think she’s going to be great.”
Thousands of police are guarding the Japanese capital for Trump’s arrival, as tension grows after Friday’s arrest of a knife-wielding man outside the U.S. embassy and plans for an anti-Trump protest in downtown Shinjuku.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Japanese counterpart Ryosei Akazawa, architects of the tariff deal agreed in July, are set to hold a working lunch on Monday.
Bessent, travelling with Trump alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is also expected to meet his new counterpart, Satsuki Katayama, for the first time.
IMPERIAL WELCOME FOR TRUMP’S RETURN
Trump was the first foreign leader to meet Naruhito after he came to the throne in 2019, continuing an imperial line that some claim is the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy.
Naruhito’s role, however, is purely symbolic, and the key diplomacy will take place with Takaichi on Tuesday.
The two are set to meet at the nearby Akasaka Palace, where Trump met Abe six years ago, and will be welcomed by a military honour guard.
Besides investment pledges, Takaichi is expected to reassure Trump that Tokyo is willing to do more on security after telling lawmakers on Friday she plans to accelerate Japan’s biggest defence build-up since World War Two.
Japan hosts the largest concentration of U.S. military power abroad and Trump has complained previously it is not spending enough to defend its islands from an increasingly assertive China.
While Takaichi has said she will speed plans to boost defence spending to 2% of GDP, she may struggle to commit Japan to any further increases that Trump seeks, as her ruling coalition does not have a majority in parliament.
Trump is due to leave on Wednesday for Gyeongju in South Korea, where he will first hold talks with President Lee Jae Myung.
Thursday’s meeting with Xi comes after Washington and Beijing have raised tariffs on each other’s exports and threatened to halt trade involving critical minerals and technologies.
Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore the terms of trade that existed before Trump’s return to power.
Talks between the two sides to prepare for the meeting have focused on managing disagreements and modest improvements, before a visit by Trump to China expected early next year.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly and John Geddie in Tokyo and Trevor Hunnicut in Kuala Lumpur; Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Laurie Chen in Beijing and Jihoon Lee and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)
