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Antony Blinken makes unexpected stop in Tokyo to pay respects after Shinzo Abe assassination
- The US secretary of state hailed the former Japanese prime minister as a ‘man of vision’ who ‘did more than anyone to elevate’ US-Japan ties
- US President Joe Biden earlier went to the Japanese ambassador’s residence to sign the condolence book. Abe was fatally shot during a campaign stop on Friday
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived on a previously unscheduled stop to Tokyo on Monday to offer condolences in person over the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
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Washington’s top diplomat hailed Abe as a “man of vision” after landing at the Yokota military base and making a brief journey into the capital to see Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We’re friends, and when one friend is hurting, the other friend shows up,” Blinken said.
Abe “did more than anyone to elevate the relationship between the United States and Japan to new heights”, he added, after his meeting with Kishida.
“We will do everything we can to help our friends carry the burden of this loss,” he said, calling Abe “a man of vision with the ability to realise that vision”.
Blinken said he handed Kishida letters from US President Joe Biden for Abe’s family, who later Monday will hold a private wake for the country’s longest-serving prime minister at Zojoji temple in Tokyo.
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