On Monday, a senior Foreign Ministry official pointed out Trump has made “various remarks about almost everything,” and many of them are different from the official positions held by the U.S. government.
That’s not the right response for us,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“If it’s their official position, we need to deal with it, but the president says various things,” the official said.
The senior official also argued the security obligations under the treaty are “well-balanced,” reiterating Tokyo’s official view of the bilateral military arrangements.
“I have explained to the president the (legal) constraints of the Self-Defense Forces under the Constitution and what we could do.
But Trump again repeated his verbal attack on the security treaty during a news conference held right after the summit.
Japanese officials say Trump has never criticized the bilateral military arrangements, at least during official conversations with top Japanese officials, since becoming president. »
