Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said live on NHK that he considered the results of his meeting with US President Donald Trump to be good.
Ishiba visited the US, where on February 7 he held his first personal meeting with Trump. The Japanese Prime Minister became the second head of state the US leader met with after he took office for a second presidential term.
A joint statement was adopted after the meeting. Ishiba returned from the United States on Saturday evening.
"The impression I had of him, watching him on TV, was that he was a scary guy. And when we spoke to him live, it turned out that he was a person who knows how to listen. He didn't interrupt me when I was explaining our position, he really listened carefully.
So the impression is completely different from what you see on TV. It's clear that he has different sides that he shows to one person or another. But I got the impression that we will be able to talk calmly in the future,“ said Ishiba.
He noted that he considers building a relationship of trust with Trump to be the most important thing.
“It was important to establish a relationship of trust from the very beginning. A relationship where you would want to talk to this person again. This is not a one-time relationship, because we will meet many more times. So it was important to listen to each other. "I think the result was good thanks to the efforts of many people," Ishiba said.
The Japanese prime minister noted that when you communicate with a person, it is important to acknowledge their good sides.
"I think we have a coincidence. People have bad sides and good sides, I think it is important to acknowledge each other's good sides. “It doesn't matter what he thinks of me,” Ishiba said.