Business relations: All work and no play for Obama
US President meets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over dinner in Tokyo.
TOKYO:
US President Barack Obama was all about business even at a special sushi dinner in Tokyo, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wanted to use as a bonding opportunity, reports said Saturday. “It was all about work,” Abe told his key ministers about his conversation with the US leader during their private dinner at an exclusive Michelin-starred restaurant, according to major Japanese press, including the Nikkei business daily. As a master sushi chef worked before them, Obama recited detailed figures to urge Abe to make concessions over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a vast trade agreement that would cover about 40 percent of the global economy and a key plank in Washington’s bid for a renewed focus on Asia, according to local media.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2014.
US President Barack Obama was all about business even at a special sushi dinner in Tokyo, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wanted to use as a bonding opportunity, reports said Saturday. “It was all about work,” Abe told his key ministers about his conversation with the US leader during their private dinner at an exclusive Michelin-starred restaurant, according to major Japanese press, including the Nikkei business daily. As a master sushi chef worked before them, Obama recited detailed figures to urge Abe to make concessions over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a vast trade agreement that would cover about 40 percent of the global economy and a key plank in Washington’s bid for a renewed focus on Asia, according to local media.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2014.