Apr 27, 2007 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe share a love of baseball, a common interest that may help along a friendship both leaders are keen to nurture amid deepening security ties between their countries.
After dining at the White House on Thursday night with their wives, the leaders will meet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks followed by a joint news conference and a luncheon.
Abe's two-day U.S. visit is his first since becoming prime minister in September. The effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, China's growing military might and the Iraq war are among the agenda items for the Camp David talks.
But Dennis Wilder, an Asia specialist at the White House National Security Council, said the meeting would also be a chance for them to develop a personal rapport.
Bush considered Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi one of his best friends. When they toured Elvis's Graceland mansion together last year, the charismatic Koizumi donned sunglasses and belted out lyrics from the singer's most famous hits.
Abe has a lower-key personality but, like Koizumi, wants to see Japan take on a more assertive role in global security — an effort Washington has encouraged. Abe has made rewriting Japan's pacifist constitution a top goal.
"I do want to stress this global alliance that we have with the Japanese, and this transcends the Koizumi administration," Wilder said. "We think the Japanese have an important role to play internationally, but they can play a bigger role internationally."
On North Korea, which missed a deadline under a February deal to shut down its nuclear reactor, some Japanese are worried about an apparent softening of Washington's stance that led to the agreement.
Japan is expected to remain adamant that Tokyo, which participated in six-party talks aimed North Korea's nuclear disarmament, would not give Pyongyang aid until it sees progress in a feud over its citizens abducted decades ago.
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