Thank you very much. I want to begin today by expressing my deep condolences to the entire Bush family on the passing of former First Lady Barbara Bush, a wonderful, wonderful person. For decades, Barbara was a titan in American life. Her presence and character were engraved into America’s identity.

Her strength and toughness really embodied the spirit of our country. And her warmth and devotion earned the admiration of an entire nation and, indeed, the entire world. She was a tireless champion for literacy. She was a fierce advocate for the American family. And she was a woman of proud patriotism and profound faith.

Our hearts are saddened by her passing, but our spirits are lifted by the memories of her goodness and her grace. She was a good person.

Melania and I send our prayers to Barbara’s husband of 73 years — I’ll never beat that record — President George H.W. Bush; to the surviving children — Jeb, and Neil, and Marvin, Dorothy, and former President George W. Bush; and to their many wonderful grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This evening, I also want to send a message to all of the brave service members from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom who were involved in the very successful strikes on targets associated with the Syrian chemical weapons program last week. Once again, the unmatched skill of the United States military, and our great partners and allies, was demonstrated to the entire world. Missiles were shot. They tried to knock them down; they weren’t in the least successful. They hit none.

The purpose of our strike was to establish a strong deterrent against the use of banned chemical weapons. Civilized nations must join together to prevent the horrors of chemical warfare and, in fact, warfare. And I think our allies really were absolutely world-class, wonderful. We thank them for their support.

Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by my good friend, Prime Minister Abe of Japan. Highly respected gentleman. Prime Minister, Melania and I are honored to host you and Mrs. Abe once again at Mar-a-Lago. We’re grateful for the tremendous hospitality you showed us during our visit to your country last fall. It was a true privilege to be welcomed to the magnificent land of Japan, or as I’ve heard all my life, the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s true. So great.

During our visit to Asia in November, we had tremendous success enlisting support for our campaign of maximum pressure on the North Korean regime. As you know, I will be meeting with Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Hopefully, that meeting will be a great success. And we’re looking forward to it. It would be a tremendous thing for North Korea and a tremendous thing for the world. So we will be doing everything possible to make it a worldwide success, not just for the United States or South Korea or North Korea or Japan, but for the entire world.

We hope to see the day when the whole Korean Peninsula can live together in safety, prosperity, and peace. This is the destiny of the Korean people who deserve and have gone through so much over the years. We hope it all works out, and we’ll be trying very hard.

I want to thank the Prime Minister for his insight and support over the past year as we have pursued the dream of a peaceful, nuclear-free Korea. Shinzo, you have worked very hard, along with us and all of our people, and we thank you very much. And we’re with you. And you’re a lot closer than we are, but we’re working on this together. Thank you very much. Your support has been critical to getting us to this important moment in time. It’s a historic moment, and possibly beyond that, if it works out properly.

Our discussions today reaffirmed the close cooperation between the United States and Japan on the issue of North Korea and our common defense.

We will not repeat the mistakes of previous administrations. Our campaign of maximum pressure will continue until North Korea denuclearizes. We have great respect for many aspects of what they’re doing, but we have to get it together. We have to end nuclear weapons, ideally in all parts of the world. That would be a goal for all of us, to hope for and to cherish.

As I’ve said before, there is a bright path available to North Korea when it achieves denuclearization in a complete and verifiable, and irreversible way. It will be a great day for them. It will be great day for the world.

During my visit to Japan last fall, I met with Japanese families who endured the terrible heartbreak of having their loved ones abducted by the North Korean regime. We want to see these families reunited as soon as possible. And I know for a fact that it’s one of the truly most important things on Shinzo’s mind. We talk about it often. So important to you. And we’re going to do everything possible to have them brought back, and bring them back to Japan. I gave you that promise.

The United States also supports Japan’s efforts to improve its defense capabilities, and we’re exploring ways to expedite the sale of American military equipment to Japan through the Foreign Military Sales program.

We’ve stepped up our effort not only with respect to Japan, but other allies, that when they order military equipment from us, we will get it taken care of and they will get their equipment rapidly. It would be, in some cases, years before orders would take place because of bureaucracy with Department of Defense, State Department. We are short-circuiting that. It’s now going to be a matter of days. If they’re our allies, we are going to help them get this very important, great military equipment. And nobody — nobody — makes it like the United States. It’s the best in the world by far.

We’re also working to improve our economic partnership by reducing our trade imbalance and removing barriers to U.S. exports. The United States is committed to free, fair, and reciprocal — very important word — trade. And we’re committed to pursuing a bilateral trading relationship that benefits both of our great countries.

Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to intensify our trade and investment consultations. Ambassador Lighthizer, who’s with us today, will take the lead for the United States.

These past two days have been extremely productive. The friendship between Japan and the United States has never been closer. I truly believe it has never been closer than it is today. And the bonds between our people have never been stronger.

In the months ahead, we will rely on this great friendship as we face an array of old challenges and new opportunities, and we will face them together. We will work closely on trade. We will do something having to do with the imbalance that, frankly, should have been done for years and years and years.

Mr. Prime Minister, I want to thank you again for traveling to Mar-a-Lago for these important discussions and meetings. It’s been a true honor to welcome you here and to work with you toward greater security, prosperity, and peace for our two truly great and wonderful nations. And thank you for being here, Shinzo. Thank you. 

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