World

NICOSIA — A round of UN-brokered peace talks between rival leaders of divided Cyprus broke up in acrimony on Thursday over moves for schools to honour a decades-old referendum on union with Greece.

Tensions have soared over the approval by the Greek Cypriot parliament for schools in the south of the island to mark the 1950 referendum on “Enosis”, or union with Greece.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said that when the issue came up of scrapping the decision to mark the referendum, his Greek Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades said there “was nothing else to say, slammed the door and left”.

“At that point there was nothing more to do as this meeting needs to be conducted in an atmosphere of respect so we also left the meeting,” he told reporters.

But Anastasiades said the Turkish Cypriot side left the talks first.

Akinci’s walkout was “unwarranted and without cause or reason”, he said on television, adding that UN envoy Espen Barth Eide, chairing the meeting, was also “unaware of what happened”.

Eide, who is due to make a statement later in the day, already acknowledged that “this is not the best climate” as he held separate talks with the two leaders on Wednesday to try to head off a crisis.

Anastasiades said that despite the envoy’s efforts to persuade Akinci to return, the Turkish Cypriot leader was “adamant” and left the area.

But Turkey, like Akinci, also said it was the Greek Cypriots who left the negotiations.

“If they want to have talks, they will have to come back to this table, [but] if they don’t want to, then there will be no more talks,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists in Bonn.

The 1950 referendum — before Cyprus won independence from colonial ruler Britain — overwhelmingly approved Enosis but had no legal value.

‘Great damage’ 

Almost 96 per cent of the island’s majority Greek Cypriots signed up in favour of union between Cyprus and the “motherland” Greece in the unofficial referendum held in churches and coffee shops across the island, according to its organisers, the Cyprus Greek Orthodox church.

The new schools legislation, sponsored by the far-right ELAM Party, essentially calls for secondary students to mark the referendum anniversary by learning about the event and reading leaflets dedicated to understanding the Enosis cause.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, Akinci warned the move would cause “great damage” to the peace process.

Turkey, for its part, has criticised Anastasiades for trying to make light of the referendum and demanded the Greek Cypriots change their “mentality” when it comes to accepting Turkish Cypriots as “co-owners of the island”.

The two sides have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers have seen as the best chance in years to reunify the island.

In January, the UN hosted talks in Geneva bringing both sides together for the first time with the three “guarantor powers” of Britain, Greece and Turkey.

Much of the progress until now has been based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, who was born in Limassol which is now in the south.

“The Greek [Cypriot] leader has acted from time to time hot-headedly,” said Akinci.

“In the past we tolerated it until the last drop. It was not possible to tolerate this now,” he added.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking Enosis.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump railed at US intelligence agencies on Wednesday as Washington was shaken by new reports of high-level Russian contacts with his aides and associates during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Intercepted calls and phone records show Trump aides were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials at least a year before the US elections, The New York Times reported, citing current and former US officials.

Among those picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign chairman who had worked as a political consultant in Ukraine, the Times said. Manafort called the report “absurd”.

 But the latest bombshell plunged the 26-day-old administration deeper into crisis over Russia’s alleged ties to Trump’s team and its attempts to influence the outcome of the election.

It comes two days after Trump fired his national security adviser, Mike Flynn, for misleading Vice President Mike Pence over his discussions about sanctions with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington.

 ‘Like candy’ 

In a barrage of early morning tweets, Trump accused the US intelligence community of being behind the leaks, directly pointing the finger at National Security Agency and the FBI.

“This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign,” Trump said in one tweet.

“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!” he stormed.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the latest allegations.

“Don’t believe newspaper reports, it’s very difficult at the moment to differentiate them from falsehoods and fabrications,” Peskov told reporters.

“If you don’t mind let’s wait and let’s not believe anonymous information, which is information based on no fact,” he said.

The revelations have infuriated Democrats and unsettled Republican leaders wary about Trump’s professed desire for better relations with Moscow.

“This ongoing story is a perfect piece of evidence as to why we should not trust Russia,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told MSNBC.

Republicans and Democratic lawmakers have now called for an investigation into what happened, although they differ sharply on the scope and powers of the probe.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren insisted that Trump “owes Americans a full account” of his campaign and administration’s dealings with Moscow.

The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell said it was “highly likely” that Flynn would have to testify before an intelligence panel.

Flynn’s firing 

The US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a wide-ranging campaign to disrupt and ultimately influence the US elections in Trump’s favour.

The issue reignited following disclosures last month that Flynn, a retired general and former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, made five phone calls with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, on December 29.

That was the same day that outgoing president Barack Obama was launching retaliatory sanctions against Russia for its meddling in the elections.

When the phone calls came to light, Flynn denied to Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials that he had discussed the sanctions with Kislyak, and Pence repeated the denial in a television interview on January 15.

On January 26, acting attorney general, Sally Yates, informed the White House legal counsel that intelligence intercepts show that Flynn was lying about the nature of the call, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was told about the intercepts immediately. But Pence was kept out of the loop for two more weeks.

Spokesman Marc Lotter said the vice president only learned about it in media reports on February 9. 

Spicer said Flynn was not acting on Trump’s instructions when he discussed the sanctions with Kislyak, but questions have been raised about why it took Trump so long to fire his national security adviser.

The White House counsel “determined that there is not an illegal issue, but rather a trust issue”, Spicer said.

“The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result ... is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation.”

 Flynn is the third Trump aide to step back amid questions about his ties to Russia since the mogul began his improbable White House bid. 

His departure follows those of Manafort and Carter Page, an early foreign policy advisor to the candidate.

Russia line 

With the White House under mounting pressure, the US line on Russia appears to be hardening despite Trump’s oft-proclaimed admiration for Putin.

“President Trump has made it very clear he expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea,” Spicer.

The State Department expressed concern that Russia is in breach of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, after reports that Moscow had deployed an operational ground-launched cruise missile unit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov plans to meet his US counterpart Rex Tillerson on Thursday in Germany, when both diplomats will be in Bonn for the G20 ministerial talks.

LONDON — China is beginning to export its own weapon designs, including armed drones, worldwide and is reaching “near-parity” with the West in terms of military technology, according to a report on Tuesday.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said that China’s official defence budget of $145 billion (137 billion euros) last year was 1.8 times higher than those of South Korea and Japan combined.

It also accounted for more than a third of Asia’s total military spending in 2016, the IISS annual Military Balance report said, adding that spending in Asia grew by five to six percentage points a year between 2012 and 2016.

Total global military spending instead fell by 0.4 per cent in real terms in 2016 compared to 2015, largely due to reductions in the Middle East.

“China’s military progress highlights that Western dominance in the field of advanced weapons systems can no longer be taken for granted,” IISS director John Chipman said at a presentation in London.

“An emerging threat for deployed Western forces is that with China looking to sell more abroad, they may confront more advanced military systems, in more places, and operated by a broader range of adversaries,” Chipman said.

The report found that in terms of air power, “China appears to be reaching near-parity with the West”.

It said one of China’s air-to-air missiles had no Western equivalent and that China had introduced a type of short-range missile that “only a handful of leading aerospace nations are able to develop”.

It said China was also developing “what could be the world’s longest range air-to-air missile”.

Chinese exports to Africa 

The report noted that Chinese military exports to Africa last year “were moving from the sale of Soviet-era designs to the export of systems designed in China”. 

It said that Chinese-made armed drones had been seen in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

The report also noted that European states are “only gradually” increasing their defence spending.

“While Europe was one of the three regions in the world where defence spending rose in 2015-16, European defence spending remains modest as a proportion of the continent’s GDP,” the study said.

In 2016, IISS found that only two European NATO states — Greece and Estonia — met the aim of spending 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.

This was down from four European states that met the target in 2015 — Britain, Greece, Estonia and Poland.

Britain dipped to 1.98 per cent of GDP, according to IISS calculations, although that figure was immediately disputed by Britain’s defence ministry.

But the IISS said it was more important that countries focus on upgrading their military equipment.

“This is made more urgent because of the degree to which Western states have reduced their equipment and personnel numbers since the Cold War,” it said.

SEOUL — North Korea said on Monday it had successfully test-fired a new type of medium- to long-range ballistic missile the previous day, claiming advances in a weapons programme it is pursuing in violation of UN resolutions.

North Korea fired the missile on a high arc into the sea early on Sunday, the first probe of US President Donald Trump's vow to get tough on an isolated regime that tested nuclear devices and ballistic missiles last year at an unprecedented rate.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test of the Pukguksong-2, a new type of strategic weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The United States, Japan and South Korea requested urgent UN Security Council consultations on the test, with a meeting expected later on Monday, an official in the US mission to the United Nations said.

Japan said further sanctions against North Korea could be discussed at the United Nations, and called on China to take a "constructive" role in responding.

China is North Korea's main ally and trading partner but is irritated by its repeated aggressive actions, although it rejects suggestions from the United States and others that it could be doing more to rein in its neighbour.

"We have asked China via various levels to take constructive actions as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and we will continue to work on it," said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

China said it opposed North Korean missile tests that run contrary to UN resolutions.

"All sides should exercise restraint and jointly maintain regional peace and security," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing, adding that China would participate in talks at the United Nations on the launch with a "responsible and constructive attitude".

Russia's foreign ministry expressed concern over the launch, RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

High angle

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two lasjavascript:void(0);t year, although its claims to be able to miniaturise a nuclear weapon to be mounted on a missile have never been verified independently.

Leader Kim said in his New Year speech that the North was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and state media have said such a launch could come at any time.

A fully developed ICBM could threaten the continental United States, which is about 9,000km from North Korea.

The KCNA news agency said the missile fired on Sunday was launched at a high angle in consideration of the safety of neighbouring countries. A South Korean military source said on Sunday it reached an altitude of 550km.

It flew about 500km towards Japan, landing off the east coast of the Korean peninsula.

The missile was propelled by a solid fuel engine and was an upgraded, extended-range version of its submarine-launched ballistic missile that was tested successfully last August, according to KCNA.

The missile's name — Pukguksong-2 — translates as north star or Polaris, the same name of the first US submarine-launched missile.

South Korea's military said the missile had been launched using a "cold-eject" system, whereby it is initially lifted by compressed gas before flying under the power of its rocket, a system used for submarine-launched missiles.

North Korea's pursuit of large solid-fuelled missiles was "a very concerning development", said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.

"Large solid-fuel motors are difficult to make work correctly so this is indeed a significant advance by North Korea," McDowell said.

'Intolerable'

In addition to launching more quickly, solid-fuel engines also boost the power and range of ballistic rockets.

"Solid-motor engines mean that the fuel is pre-stored and the missile can be launched quickly. For example, rolled out of a cave, tunnel, or bridge," said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.

"They are also more difficult to track by satellite because they have fewer support vehicles in their entourage."

 The North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed pictures of a missile fired from a mobile launch vehicle, with a flame appearing only after it had risen clear of the vehicle.

Before Sunday, the North's two most recent missile tests were in October. Both were of intermediate-range Musudan missiles and both failed, according to US and South Korean officials.

A US official said at the weekend that the Trump administration had been expecting a North Korean "provocation" soon after taking office.

The latest test came a day after Trump held a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and also followed a phone call last week between trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Abe described the test as "absolutely intolerable".

In brief comments made while standing beside Abe in Florida, Trump said: "I just want everybody to understand, and fully know, that the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 per cent."

 Trump and his aides are likely to weigh a series of responses, including new US sanctions to tighten financial controls, an increase in naval and air assets in and around the Korean peninsula, and accelerated installation of new missile defence systems in South Korea, the administration official said.

However, the official said that, given that the missile was believed not to have been an ICBM, and the North had not carried out a new nuclear explosion, any response would seek to avoid increasing tension.

SEOUL/WASHINGTON — North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea early on Sunday, the first such test since US President Donald Trump was elected, and his administration indicated that Washington would have a calibrated response to avoid escalating tensions.

The test was likely to have been of an intermediate-range Musudan-class missile that landed in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s military, not an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which the North has said it could test at any time.

The launch marks the first test of Trump’s vow to get tough on an isolated North Korean regime that last year tested nuclear devices and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate in violation of United Nations resolutions.

A US official said the Trump administration had been expecting a North Korean “provocation” soon after taking office and will consider a full range of options in response, but they would be calibrated to show US resolve while avoiding escalation.

Later, White House adviser Stephen Miller said on the television show “Fox News Sunday” that “we are going to reinforce and strengthen our vital alliances in the Pacific region as part of our strategy to deter and prevent the increasing hostility that we’ve seen in recent years from the North Korean regime”.

The new administration is also likely to step up pressure on China to rein in North Korea, reflecting Trump’s previously stated view that Beijing has not done enough on this front, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This was no surprise,” the official said. “The North Korean leader likes to draw attention at times like this.”

The latest test comes a day after Trump held a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and also follows Trump’s phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I just want everybody to understand, and fully know, that the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 per cent,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, speaking alongside Abe. He made no further comments.

Abe called the launch “absolutely intolerable” and said North Korea must comply with UN Security Council resolutions.

The French foreign ministry joined the condemnation, issuing a statement that said “France reaffirms its solidarity with its partners in Asia-Pacific whose security is threatened by the North Korean nuclear and ballistic programme.”

 China is North Korea’s main ally but has been frustrated by Pyongyang’s repeated provocations, although it bristles at pressure from Washington and Seoul to curb the North and its young leader, Kim Jong-un.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump and his aides are likely to weigh a series of possible responses, including new US sanctions to tighten financial controls, an increase in naval and air assets in and around the Korean Peninsula and accelerated installation of new missile defence systems in South Korea, the administration official said.

But the official said that given that the missile was believed not to have been an ICBM and that Pyongyang had not carried out a new nuclear explosion, any response will seek to avoid ratcheting up tensions.

‘It won’t happen’

Trump has pledged a more assertive approach to North Korea but given no clear sign of how his policy would differ from Obama’s so-called strategic patience. In January, Trump tweeted “It won’t happen!” after Kim said the North was close to testing an ICBM, but his aides never explained how he would do so.

The missile was launched from an area called Panghyon in North Korea’s western region just before 8am (2300 GMT Saturday) and flew about 500km, the South’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

“Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new US administration’s hardline position against the North,” the office said in a statement.

A South Korean military source said the missile reached an altitude of about 550km. While Seoul initially said the missile was probably a medium-range Rodong, it later said the launch was likely of a Musudan, which is designed to fly up to 3,000-4,000km.

The North attempted eight Musudan launches last year. Only one of those launches — of a missile that flew 400km in June — was considered a success by officials and experts in South Korea and the United States.

Kim said in his New Year speech that the country was close to test-launching an ICBM and state media have said such a launch could come at any time.

The comments prompted a vow of an “overwhelming” response from US Defence Secretary James Mattis when he travelled to South Korea earlier this month.

Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental United States, which is about 9,000km from North Korea. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500km, but some are designed to travel 10,000km or more.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and numerous missile-related tests last year and was seen by experts and officials to be making progress in its weapons capabilities, although until Sunday no ballistic missile launch attempt had been detected since October.

Its repeated missile launches prompted Washington and Seoul to agree to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile battery in South Korea later this year, which is strongly opposed by Beijing, which worries the system’s powerful radar undermines its own security.

Sunday’s launch comes at an awkward time for South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye has been stripped of her powers after a December parliamentary vote to impeach her. Her fate will be decided by the constitutional court, which is hearing arguments on whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

PALM BEACH, Florida/WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump is considering issuing a new executive order banning citizens of certain countries travelling to the United States after his initial attempt to clamp down on immigration and refugees snarled to a halt amid political and judicial chaos.

Trump announced the possibility of a “brand new order” that could be issued as soon as Monday or Tuesday, in a surprise talk with reporters aboard Air Force One late on Friday, as he and the Japanese premier headed to his estate in Florida for the weekend.

His signalling of a possible new tack came a day after an appeals court in San Francisco upheld a court ruling last week that temporarily suspended Trump’s original January 27 executive order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Trump gave no details of any new ban he is considering. He might rewrite the original order to explicitly exclude green card holders, or permanent residents, said a congressional aide familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. Doing that could alleviate some concerns expressed by the courts.

A new order, however, could allow Trump’s critics to declare victory by arguing he was forced to change course in his first major policy as president.

Whether or not Trump issues a new order, his administration may still pursue its case in the courts over the original order, which is still being reviewed by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told reporters late on Friday that taking the case to the Supreme Court remained a possibility, after another White House official said earlier in the day the administration was not planning to escalate the dispute.

“Every single court option is on the table, including an appeal of the 9th Circuit decision on the TRO [temporary restraining order] to the Supreme Court, including fighting out this case on the merits,” Priebus said.

“And, in addition to that, we’re pursuing executive orders right now that we expect to be enacted soon that will further protect Americans from terrorism.”

 Rewrite order

Trump’s original order, which he called a national security measure meant to head off attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.

The abrupt implementation of the order plunged the immigration system into chaos, sparking a wave of criticism from targeted countries, Western allies and some of America’s leading corporations, especially technology firms.

A federal judge in Seattle suspended the order last Friday after its legality was challenged by Washington state, eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against the judge and the court system. That ruling was upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday, raising questions about Trump’s next step.

An official familiar with Trump’s plans said if the order is rewritten, among those involved would likely be White House aide Stephen Miller, who was involved in drafting the original order, as well as officials of the National Security Council, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security.

It is not clear if a new order from Trump would immediately put a travel ban back in place, or if those who have filed lawsuits, including the state of Washington, would succeed in asking the same judge for another hold.

Should Trump issue a new order, he is still likely to face legal challenges, as opponents could ask the court to let them amend their complaints, said Alexander Reinert, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York.

‘We need speed’

On Air Force One, Trump addressed the San Francisco court fight, saying: “We will win that battle. The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily... We need speed for reasons of security.”

The matter could move forward next week. An unidentified judge on the 9th Circuit on Friday requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary block of Trump’s travel ban should be reheard before an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review, according to a court order. The 9th Circuit asked both sides to file briefs by Thursday.

In a separate case on Friday, Justice Department lawyers argued in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia against a preliminary injunction that would put a longer hold on Trump’s executive order than the Seattle court ruling, but focused solely on visa holders.

Judge Leonie Brinkema asked the administration for more evidence of the threat posed by citizens of the seven countries.

Aboard the flight with Trump were his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie. The Trumps landed in the evening and went to their Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

SEOUL — Lawyers for South Korean President Park Geun-hye have rejected a plan by a special prosecutor investigating a graft scandal to question her, citing a media leak, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.

The plan was to question Park on Thursday at an undisclosed location, Lee Kyu-chul, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told a media briefing.

But Park’s office had notified the prosecutor that it was scrapping an agreement on the questioning, Lee said.

“There is no change to the position that a face-to-face questioning of the president is necessary but there has been no decision specifically on the schedule from this point on,” he said.

Lee said Park’s lawyers had notified the prosecutor’s office of the decision after a television station said in a Tuesday broadcast that Park would be questioned on Thursday at an office inside the presidential Blue House compound.

It was not clear why the media report triggered the decision to cancel the questioning.

Park was impeached by parliament on December 9 on suspicion of colluding with a long-time friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big business to donate to two foundations set up to back the president’s policy initiatives.

Park, whose powers have been suspended while the constitutional court reviews the impeachment, is also accused of allowing Choi to exert inappropriate influence over state affairs.

Both have denied wrongdoing.

Last week, the presidential Blue House, where Park remains, blocked officials from the special prosecutor’s office from conducting a search under a court warrant, citing security.

Park has not been formally charged for wrongdoing, as she has immunity while in office except for subversion or treason, but she has been named an accomplice to Choi under an indictment filed against the friend.

Park had previously said she would cooperate with the special prosecutor.

TOKYO — Shinzo Abe heads to the US on Thursday — and to a game of golf with Donald Trump — teeing off a drive to keep Japan's most important relationship out of the rough.

After a formal summit in Washington, the Japanese prime minister is expected to board Air Force One with the new US president and jet off to Florida for some time together on the links.

For Abe, a round of golf could be an opportunity to avoid the hazards that other world leaders have encountered in their dealings with the unconventional commander-in-chief.

"So far, Trump has described Japan as if it is an imagined enemy," said Fumiaki Kubo, an expert on US politics at the University of Tokyo.

The idea of meeting in person "is better than fighting during a phone conversation," he said, alluding to reports of the heated call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, which by some accounts ended abruptly.

"You can't escape a conversation by hanging up the phone inside Air Force One," Kubo said, noting that spending such a long time with Trump would be a chance for Abe to brief him about the basic facts of the Japan-US relationship.

In the more than seven decades since defeat in World War II, Japan has risen to become a steadfast ally of the United States.

There are 47,000 US service personnel based in Japan, providing protection for their hosts and offering an invaluable forward position in East Asia for the Americans.

The two countries enjoy a huge trade relationship — goods and services worth about $200 billion pass between them every year.

But Trump's unorthodox White House run was built, in part, on throwing shade on relations with friends and enemies alike.

The former reality TV star, in comments to business executives, has assailed Japan for allegedly devaluing the yen, grouping it with other countries he says are taking "advantage" of the US.

'Friendly nation' 

Japanese companies have also felt his ire on Twitter, with car behemoth Toyota getting an earbashing over a planned factory in Mexico.

Perhaps most worryingly for many Japanese, Trump suggested during his campaign Tokyo was not paying its fair share for the huge US military presence, hinting that he might pull American troops and saying Japan should develop its own nuclear deterrent.

At a time of rising uncertainty caused by an unpredictable North Korea and China's increasing willingness to press its case in territorial and other regional disputes, that unsettled Tokyo.

Despite a professed willingness to bolster their own military, the hawkish Abe and his supporters know a US drawdown would badly upend East Asia and leave Japan vulnerable.

In the immediate aftermath of Trump's shock election victory last November, Abe hurried to New York, becoming the first global leader to meet the president-elect.

The meeting, at Trump's gilded Manhattan penthouse, seemed to go off well.

Abe presented Trump with a golf driver, reportedly worth around $4,500, and met daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both seen as having the president's ear.

But if the prime minister was hoping for an immediate return on his investment, he might have been disappointed.

Within days of taking the Oval Office, Trump yanked the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a complex free-trade agreement in which Abe had invested a lot of political capital.

The move fulfilled a campaign promise for the property baron-turned-president, but left allies in Asia spinning; the TPP was an economic guarantee of US committment to the region.

Undeterred, Abe has tried to keep things on an even keel, holding his counsel on some of Trump's more divisive moves even as allies like Germany openly frown at his controversial ban on refugees.

And when he heads to Washington for their official meeting on Friday, Abe will come bearing gifts: an economic cooperation package that reportedly includes plans to help create 700,000 US jobs through Japanese investment in American infrastructure.

Showing a commitment to US employment — a key campaign promise of the president — is "part of Japan's efforts to explain to Trump that it is a friendly nation" not just in security but also economics, said Mikitaka Masuyama, professor of politics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

But for all the economic quid pro quo with this most transactional of US presidents, the one-on-one that time on the golf course offers could be Abe's best bet for building a stronger relationship.

Trump agrees.

"That's the one thing about golf — you get to know somebody better on a golf course than you will over lunch," the president told Westwood One Sports Radio in the US.

"We're going to have a lot of fun."

BUCHAREST — Romania’s president on Tuesday tore into the Social Democrat-led government over a corruption decree that has sparked the biggest protests since the 1989 fall of communism, but he backed it to remain in power in a potential reprieve for Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

The government on Sunday rescinded the decree, which critics said would have turned back the clock on the fight against corruption in the European Union member state, but some protesters have pledged to keep up the pressure until Grindeanu resigns.

In a speech to parliament, centrist President Klaus Iohannis admonished the government for issuing the decree a week ago “at night, in secret” without consulting parliament.

But he said the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) had won the right to govern in a December election and should continue to do so, a message that may take the sting out of the protests.

Hundreds of thousands of Romanians have taken to the streets for the past week in cities across the country, thronging Bucharest’s broad boulevards in scenes that will not have gone unnoticed elsewhere across Eastern Europe, blighted by corruption and cosy ties between business and politics since the end of communism.

“The prosperity of the Romanian people was not your first priority. Your first concern was to look after the penal files, and that’s why Romanians are indignant and revolted,” Iohannis told lawmakers.

Despite the crisis, he said new elections were not the answer.

“You have been saying in public that I would like to overthrow the legitimate government. That’s false. You won, now you govern and legislate, but not at any price,” Iohannis said.

“The resignation of a single minister is too little and early elections would at this stage be too much. This is the available room for manoeuvre.”

Justice minister 

under fire

Though his role is largely ceremonial, the president’s powers include nominating the prime minister after elections and returning legislation to parliament for reconsideration.

PSD lawmakers walked out of the assembly around half-way through the president’s speech. They later returned to approve the government’s 2017 spending plan, setting a shortfall of 2.99 per cent of gross domestic product the (GDP).

The Romanian leu firmed to a four-month high of 4.4800 per euro, before retreating to trade 0.3 per cent up on the day at 4.4910.

Romania, a country of 20 million people and host to a US ballistic missile defence station, remains one of the poorest and most corruption-ridden members of the EU.

The decree would have decriminalised a number of graft offences and shielded many public officials from corruption allegations.

Even after the U-turn, 250,000 protesters turned out in Bucharest on Sunday evening, with some saying they would not be satisfied until the government resigned.

Around 25,000 rallied again in the capital on Monday evening. It was unclear how many might turn out on Tuesday night, but some protesters have said they will continue until parliament votes on whether to endorse the government’s repeal of the decree, likely by the end of the week.

One minister has already quit over the decree, saying he could not support it, and the Social Democrats have said they expect Grindeanu to decide whether or not to keep Justice Minister Florin Iordache, the architect of the measure.

The government, which holds a big majority, faces a no-confidence motion in parliament on Wednesday, when several PSD sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told Reuters they also expect Iordache to submit his resignation.

“For sure, some resignations would be needed and probably inevitable from the government,” said political commentator Cristian Patrasconiu. “This is what the street would like to see.”

 PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said he agreed with the president that an early election would solve nothing.

“The governing programme is good,” said Dragnea, whose current trial on abuse-of-office charges would have been halted by the decree. “If we let the government govern then the entire country stands to gain.”

TOKYO — Japan said Chinese coast guard vessels sailed on Monday into its territorial waters around disputed islands in the East China Sea, days after the new US defence chief vowed to defend Tokyo's control of them.

Three ships entered the waters surrounding the uninhabited chain, the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement. The isles are controlled by Japan as the Senkakus but claimed by China as the Diaoyus. 

The incursion came at around 2:00 pm and the ships were cruising in a south-southwesterly direction, according to the statement. 

The ships left about two hours later, the coast guard said in a separate statement.

The incident came two days after James Mattis, US President Donald Trump's new defence secretary, said in Tokyo that the island chain was subject to a longstanding Washington-Tokyo defence treaty.

The islets are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing, which is also involved in a widening dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over islands in the South China Sea.

China was quick to accuse the United States of stirring up trouble in Asia with the comments by Mattis.

Its foreign ministry spokesman said Washington should "stop making wrong remarks... and avoid making the issue more complicated and bringing instability" to the region.

China and Japan have repeatedly clashed diplomatically over ownership of the islands, and both sides regularly send ships to nearby waters to assert their claims.

Mattis also had strong words over the South China Sea, saying Beijing "has shredded the trust" of regional countries with the military fortification of islands it controls. 

He balanced that message, however, with a call for disputes to be settled through arbitration and diplomacy and ruling out any immediate military response.

China, Taiwan and a handful of Southeast Asian states have claims in the area.

Besides Japan, Mattis also visited South Korea last week as he sought to assure the key allies of continued US commitment to their security.

Trump rattled them last year while he was a candidate, with calls for them to pay more for defence support.

But Japanese and South Korean officials said Mattis never raised the issue of cost-sharing during the talks.