WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump pledged close security and economic cooperation with Japan on Friday (Feb 10), opening an elaborate multiday work-and-play visit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that is intended to showcase a warm rapport with a central player in Asia.

Hoping to put behind any friction remaining from his sometimes provocative statements during last year’s presidential campaign, Mr Trump hugged Mr Abe as he arrived at the White House, lavished praise on him and his nation, and offered strong reassurances about the United States’ commitment to Japan’s defence.

“The bond between our two nations and the friendship between our two peoples runs very, very deep,” Mr Trump said at a news conference with Mr Abe, reading from a prepared text. “This administration is committed to bringing those ties even closer. We are committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control and to further strengthening our very crucial alliance.”

Speaking without notes later in the news conference, Mr Trump said he had hit it off with Mr Abe personally.

“We have a very, very good bond — very, very good chemistry,” he said. “I’ll let you know if it changes, but I don’t think it will.”

The visit, Mr Trump’s second with a head of government since being sworn in last month, was an opportunity for the president to highlight a positive dynamic with a leader with whom he had already developed a relationship. But it could prove awkward, after a show of detente Thursday night between Mr Trump and President Xi Jinping of China.

Among the topics of discussion during Mr Abe’s weekend visit will be whether, and how, to pursue a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and Japan after Mr Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping trade deal between the United States and 11 nations that included Japan.

Mr Trump also tried to dispel doubts about his commitment to a mutual defence treaty with Japan that surfaced during his campaign, when he said he was prepared to pull back from the pact unless Tokyo did more to reimburse the United States for defending Japanese territory.

Mr Trump reaffirmed his support for the treaty Friday, as Defence Secretary Jim Mattis did during a visit to Tokyo last week. And with his reference to “areas under its administrative control”, Mr Trump made clear that the treaty extended to disputed islands in the East China Sea, known in Japan as the Senkaku and in China as the Diaoyu.

Mr Abe responded with equal warmth, congratulating Mr Trump on his inauguration and welcoming his commitment to the defence treaty while sidestepping questions about Mr Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“With the birth of the Trump administration, a new genesis will be built between Japan and the US in economic relations,” he said.

Acutely aware of Mr Trump’s complaints about foreign competitors, Mr Abe stressed that “Japanese businesses have built factories all over the United States” and invested US$150 billion (S$213 billion), creating many US jobs. “Japan, with our high level of technical capability, we will be able to contribute to President Trump’s growth strategy,” he said. “There will be even more new jobs being born in the United States.”

He specifically cited Japan’s bullet-train technology, noting that if it existed along the United States’ eastern corridor, it would take “only one hour” for the president to travel from the White House in Washington to Trump Tower in New York.

While he stuck to positive themes during their public comments, Mr Abe may have questions in private for Mr Trump about his provocative statements related to Japan, including his warning to Toyota on Twitter that he would slap a “big border tax” on the carmaker if it built a new plant in Mexico and his charges that Japan devalues its currency to gain economic advantage.

Mr Abe was the first foreign leader to visit Mr Trump after his election in November, and they have spoken a number of times since then, according to the officials.

By contrast, the president has gotten off to a chilly start with Mr Xi, who was angered by Mr Trump’s decision in November to take a congratulatory call from the president of Taiwan — which China considers a breakaway province — and his subsequent questioning of the “One China” policy. Mr Trump had a fence-mending call with Mr Xi on Thursday night and agreed to honour the One China policy at the Chinese leader’s request.

“We had a very, very good talk last night and discussed a lot of subjects,” Mr Trump said. He predicted that he would get along with China and forge a fairer playing field on trade and currency. “I believe that will all work out very well for everybody, China, Japan, the United States and everybody in the region,” he said.

Even so, Mr Abe’s visit could fuel suspicions in Beijing that Mr Trump intends to make Japan, rather than China, the focal point of his engagement with Asia. That would be a distinct shift from former President Barack Obama, who hosted Mr Xi in 2013 for an informal summit meeting at the 200-acre Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, California.

Mr Trump’s extended meeting with Mr Abe, combining business and pleasure, follows a first few weeks in office for Mr Trump that have been marked by tense exchanges with long-standing US allies like Mexico, Australia and Germany.

After a working lunch at the White House on Friday, the two leaders planned to board Air Force One and fly to Palm Beach, Florida, where they were to head to Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s club, for dinner with their wives and a weekend of relaxation. They will spend Saturday playing golf together.

A White House official said Mr Trump was paying for Mr Abe and his wife to travel to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend, as a “gift” to the leader. That eliminates potential ethics questions the visit would otherwise pose for Mr Trump, who has pledged to contribute to the US Treasury any profits from foreign visitors to his company’s properties. NEW YORK TIMES