NEW YORK: Japan's prime minister voiced confidence Thursday about Donald Trump as he became the first foreign leader to meet the US president-elect, who was narrowing in on cabinet choices.
Trump, who has been receiving a flurry of Republican operatives at his Manhattan skyscraper since his shock victory last week, appeared to be selecting staunch backers but also considering former rivals for top jobs.
Several US media outlets reported late Thursday that Trump had offered the role of national security adviser to retired general Michael Flynn, a military intelligence officer who had been a potent surrogate for the billionaire on the campaign trail.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met for 90 minutes with the president-elect at Trump Tower to sound him out after a campaign that alarmed many US allies.
"As an outcome of today's discussions, I am convinced Mr Trump is a leader in whom I can have great confidence," Abe told reporters, describing a "very warm atmosphere."
But Abe, a nationalist who has struggled both to perk up Japan's economy and face the rise of China, declined to go into specifics.
Japan is one of Washington's closest allies but Trump alarmed Tokyo policymakers during the campaign by musing about pulling the thousands of US troops from the region and suggesting that officially pacifist Japan may need nuclear weapons.
Trump also vowed on the campaign trail to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed vast trade pact backed by outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama and which Abe had made a top priority.
US media outlets cited sources in or close to Trump's transition team as saying that Flynn had been tapped for the national security adviser role.
It was not known if Flynn had accepted the job, which would involve advising an incoming president with no national security experience on issues including the Islamic State group, China and Russia.
A former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012-2014, Flynn has sharply criticized the Obama administration's handling of IS.
During the campaign, his vocal support for Trump gave the businessman credibility with veterans despite the then-candidate's lack of military service.
Trump also met Thursday with Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and hinted that he would offer a prime position to the Republican, one of the earliest supporters of Trump's once longshot campaign who shares the 70-year-old billionaire's antipathy to immigration.
The tycoon in a statement said he was "unbelievably impressed" with Sessions but had not yet made decisions on his cabinet.
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