NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump has invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to his private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida over the weekend, the White House said today.
Trump and Abe would travel to Mar-a-Lago on Friday after their meeting at the White House. After British Prime Minister Theresa May, this would be Trump's second meeting with a foreign leader in the Oval Office.
"As previously announced, he will visit the White House for meetings on the February 10th. The president has also invited him down to Mar-a-Lago and the two leaders will travel there for the weekend," the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at his daily news conference.
Trump has been calling his resort the "Winter White House," and Spicer said Abe's trip there is a testament to the close relationship between the US and Japan.
"This is a testament to the importance the United States places on the bilateral relationship and the strength of our alliance and the deep economic ties between the United States and Japan," Spicer said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would also be travelling to Washington DC for a meeting with Trump on February 15, he said.