US-JAPAN: Trump-Ishiba Joint Press Conference Underway Shortly

US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba are shortly due to hold a joint press conference at the White House, following a bilateral meeting. The presser could be the source of major headline news - related and unrelated to today's discussions. LIVESTREAM

• The bilateral meeting is likely to have focused on economic issues, Trump’s concerns about Japan’s defence spending, and joint action to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
• Senator Bill Haggarty (R-TN),  ambassador to Japan during the first Trump administration, said Ishiba is likely to seek alignment with Trump “on national security, defense and ways to bring that closer together,” particularly in light of “joint Chinese-Russian naval patrols off Japan’s coast in September and China’s increasingly aggressive incursions around the disputed Senkaku islands,” according to Politico’s China Watcher.
• Yuki Tatsumi, former special assistant for political affairs at the Japanese embassy in Washington, said: “For Ishiba, this is a very high-stakes meeting. He wants to show to Japanese constituents that he's a strong and confident enough leader to be able to build, if not a personally friendly relationship with Trump, at least a positive [one].”
• The Japan Times reported Tuesday, “Ishiba is likely to announce a plan to expand Japan's imports of liquefied natural gas from the United States, in line with Trump's plan to increase exports of U.S. oil and natural gas.”