Biden: “Surprised, angry… Abe is a fighter for the US-Japan alliance”
Trump: ‘Great leader…history will remember him’
Obama “Remembers what he did for the alliance… Impressive visits to Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima”
Condolences from current and former U.S. presidents continue following the news of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
US President Joe Biden expressed his deepest condolences over the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as “a tragedy for Japan and everyone who knows him”.
President Biden said in a statement on the 8th (local time) that “I am astonished, angry and express my deepest sorrow that former Prime Minister Abe was shot and killed during a campaign.”
“As the longest-serving prime minister, his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will continue,” Biden said.
“More than anything else, he cared for the Japanese people and devoted his life to it,” he said.
“Violence will never be tolerated, and shootings leave a deep scar on the community,” he added.
During his tenure as Prime Minister, Abe was closely related to former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Former President Trump also mourned in his social media ‘Truth Social’, saying, “Not many people know how great Abe was, but history will remember him.”
Former President Obama also tweeted, “Ex-Prime Minister Abe devoted himself to Japan and worked hard for the special alliance between the United States and Japan.” “I will always remember the things we worked together to strengthen the alliance,” he wrote.
In addition, Secretary of State Tony Blincoln, attending the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, said in a separate statement, “Together with the American people, I express my sincere condolences to the tragic death of former Prime Minister Abe.” “He was a world leader and a strong ally and friend of the United States, and his free and open Indo-Pacific initiative has taken the alliance to new heights.”
“Abe was an outstanding leader and friend of the United States,” US Ambassador to Japan Ram Emanuel said in a statement.
Shin Hyun-bo, reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]
