WASHINGTON (AP) — He hectored Mexico's leader over border wall funding. Lobbed statistics at the Canadian leader without checking his facts. Cajoled the British prime minister to crack down on protesters. Had a tête-à-tête with Russia's head of state on a whim. Bonded with France's president over military parades.

President Donald Trump rarely conducts business-as-usual diplomacy when he interacts with world leaders.

Heading into his expected summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has a record on the international stage that suggests he'll seek to charm the dictator and look for an agreement that he can pitch as a win — even if it's more a triumph of appearance than policy. But never bet against the possibility that he'll just walk away.

Trump's unpredictable negotiating style has been on full display in the run-up to the historic June 12 summit in Singapore.

After months spent deriding Kim as "Little Rocket Man" and boasting about the size of his nuclear button, Trump has shifted tone in recent months, suggesting that a friendship was possible and agreeing to an unprecedented meeting.

Even when Trump temporarily backed out of the talks, he spoke of a "wonderful dialogue" building between the two leaders. And now that the talks are back on, Trump is shelving the "maximum pressure" phrase he coined to describe his sanctions against the North.

As he approaches the Kim talks, Trump's avowed "America First" attitude has come increasingly to resemble "America alone." His eagerness for a deal has unsettled Japan and South Korea. Elsewhere, talk of tearing up trade agreements and his imposition of tariffs to protect the American steel and aluminum industries have angered longtime partners.

An overriding theme of the president's first 18 months of foreign policy has been his willingness to go it alone as he seeks to fulfill his nationalistic campaign promises — even if it unsettles allies.

"He just doesn't care as much," said Ian Bremmer, a foreign affairs columnist and president of the Eurasia Group. "In terms of postwar American history, no one has done more damage to American alliances than Trump has. All you have to do is talk to American allies."

Critics have labeled Trump an inconsistent force, prone to publicly hectoring friendly partners, embracing foes and resistant to much advice or counsel. His loyal supporters see it all as a mark of Trump's willingness to hold firm to his promised policies even when the conversations get awkward.

After nearly two years spent trying to understand the political novice, many world leaders are still struggling with how to engage Trump, though they have learned he is not easily moved from fulfilling the policies he promised to his most loyal voters during the campaign.

Foreign diplomats in the U.S. and leaders overseas have gone to great lengths to charm Trump, a rookie president schooled in New York negotiating who promised a major shift in foreign policy. Those efforts have included getting their messages on to Trump-friendly TV shows like "Fox and Friends" and rolling out the red carpet when Trump visits.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron invited Trump to view a spectacular military parade on Bastille Day, one that inspired Trump to order up his own parade in Washington. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fêted Trump with golf and American-style hamburgers.

But those overtures haven't always yielded policy results.

Macron tried unsuccessfully to keep Trump in the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal. Abe wanted Trump to stay in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and has encouraged a more skeptical approach to Kim's overtures.

White House officials privately assess that the world leaders most solicitous toward Trump are rarely the most effective. Germany's Angela Merkel and Britain's Theresa May, for instance, have both largely refused to play into Trump's love for pageantry and have been candid about their disagreements with the president.

Indeed, even those who were inclined to buddy up to Trump appear to be changing course. During an April summit at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, Abe and Trump engaged in what U.S. officials described as a heated economic dialogue over Trump's tariffs.

Just last week, Trump imposed new tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico, despite furious lobbying from those countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "These tariffs are an affront to the long-standing security partnership between Canada and the United States."

Trump, meanwhile, has focused much of his attention on adversaries rather than allies, seeking to sit down with Kim and routinely praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fixated on his celebrity and tough-guy image, Trump cares deeply about the pageantry of his interactions with world leaders and also values what he considers respectful treatment.

That tone was set on Trump's first international trip, when Saudi Arabia gave him an opulent welcome. More than a dozen horses flanked the presidential limousine as Trump was slowly driven to the Royal Court in Riyadh. Trumpets played and soldiers stood at attention as the president arrived.

A key theme in Trump's calls with foreign leaders has been his need for respect.

He badgered Mexico's president over funding for his border wall, which he views as a face-saving fulfillment of a campaign promise. He nudged the British prime minister to do something about potential protests should he visit the U.K., a potential embarrassment for a diplomatic visit.

When it comes to policy meetings and delicate negotiations, Trump is more likely to follow his instincts than stick to a scripted plan. His admission of stretching his information about trade in a call with Trudeau was in keeping with a seat-of-the-pants style that can leave advisers nervous.

Advisers say Trump avoids spending extensive time in preparation. He grew frustrated with former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and his briefing style, though he is said to listen more to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Still, Trump is not a fan of detailed briefing books, preferring limited preparation and instinct.

Those close to Trump say he is approaching the Kim meeting the same way.

This story has been corrected to show that Macron's title is president, not prime minister.</s>Singapore's foreign minister will make a two-day trip to Pyongyang starting Thursday, as preparations for a summit in the city-state between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un accelerate.

The announcement came a day after the White House revealed that the historic June 12 meeting between the US and North Korean leaders will take place in a luxury hotel on Singapore's resort island of Sentosa.

The summit is due to be held following a rapid detente between Pyongyang and Washington -- as well as South Korea -- in a turn-around from a dramatic escalation of tensions last year, when the North ratcheted up its weapons programme.

Trump finally confirmed the summit last week following a visit from a top Pyongyang official in Washington, after having abruptly cancelled the meeting as US and North Korean officials traded verbal barbs.

He has said denuclearisation, and a formal end to the decades-old Korean war, will be on the table in Singapore.

Singapore's foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan will visit the North Korean capital at the invitation of the North's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, Singapore's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The minister, who will be accompanied by foreign ministry officials, will also meet the North's ceremonial president Kim Yong Nam, the statement said.

It did not give reasons for the trip but analysts noted Balakrishnan visited the US this week and met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and will be keen to keep both sides happy before the summit.

"We've reached a point where the summit is extremely fragile and can easily be tipped out of balance," Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told AFP.

The US is pushing for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" end of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programmes, but observers believe there is a large gap between what Washington and Pyongyang define as "denuclearisation".

Singapore has diplomatic ties with Pyongyang and the North has an embassy in the city-state, although Singapore does not have an embassy in Pyongyang.

The Southeast Asia financial hub of 5.6 million people also has good relations with the US. Part of its appeal as summit host was its the fact it has one foot in the East and one in the West, as well as being modern, efficient and secure.

The island resort of Sentosa, which was selected by American diplomats, is connected to the Singapore main island by a single causeway that can be easily closed off to traffic, sources familiar with the arrangements told AFP

Singapore authorities on Tuesday marked out a part of the island surrounding the Capella hotel as a special security zone for the days around the summit.

Balakrishnan is the latest senior foreign official to visit the North as summit preparations heat up -- last month, top diplomats from China and Russia made trips to Pyongyang.

Since the inter-Korean detente began at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February, there has also been a flurry of diplomatic activity between the North and South.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim have held landmark summits twice in recent weeks.</s>President Donald Trump meets with North Korean official Kim Yong Chol on June 1, 2018.

WASHINGTON — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's wish list for his June 12 meeting with President Trump at a resort in Singapore could shed light on the prospects for the summit.

Trump in the past promised "great things" for North Korea if it dismantles its nuclear program. On Friday, after meeting with the North's Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, the president appeared to tamp down expectations for next week's meeting, calling it "a get-to-know-you kind of a situation," and "a process" that starts with building relationships.

Trump said the U.S. and North Korea may agree in Singapore to formally end the Korean War, which has been frozen with an armistice agreement since 1953. He said he no longer wants to speak of "maximum pressure" on North Korea, and said South Korea, Japan and China are expected to provide economic assistance to the North if the summit goes well. He implied that U.S. sanctions could be lifted at a later point, which would allow business relations between the North and the United States for the first time.

But he is likely to hear from Kim that the North seeks more than a deal on nuclear weapons or a peace treaty. Here's what Kim wants:

More: No one leaves early, and 4 other key things for a successful Trump-North Korea summit

More: Donald Trump: June 12 meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un back on

More: North Korea's isolation crumbling as Trump abandons 'maximum pressure' campaign

Kim's spokesman said last month that North Korea is not interested in giving up its nuclear program without a corresponding change in the U.S. military posture.

North Korea is not interested in "unilateral nuclear abandonment," Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He accused the White House and State Department of attempting to turn North Korea into another Libya by insisting on "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterward."

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi relinquished his nuclear weapons development program in return for normalized relations with the United States, but he was deposed in a rebellion supported by NATO.

North Korea's agreements and statements indicate Kim wants normalized relations with the United States. “An end to U.S. enmity remains Kim Jong Un’s aim just as it was his grandfather’s and father’s for the past 30 years,” said Leon Sigal, author of Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea.

Kim may be willing to denuclearize and even take steps to disarm if Trump commits to end hostile relations with North Korea and takes action to show the United States means it, Sigal wrote in March in 38 North, an independent online journal that provides analysis of North Korea.

A problem for U.S. leaders has been that North Korea's totalitarian government is so cruel to its people and aggressive toward its neighbors that allowing normal trade would be politically unappetizing.

In his New Year's speech, Kim said his poor country was ready to shift to economic development.

Past negotiations also focused on economic benefits. The United States offered to arrange energy assistance from petroleum producers, build two light-water nuclear reactors that would be difficult to use for producing weapons, provide food assistance and lift sanctions.

April's meeting of the rival Korean leaders ended with South Korean President Moon Jae-in's promise to connect and modernize railroad lines and roads.

To keep that pledge, the South would need waivers from United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea, something Trump appears ready to agree to provide to the South, China and Japan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States would not provide any benefits until the North completely dismantled its nuclear program.

More: Donald Trump, North Korea's Kim Jong Un will likely save the details for after the summit

More: Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: Still fighting the Korean War

More: Kim Jong Un's fires top military leaders: What does it mean?

North Korea has made agreements while still advancing its nuclear program and can be expected to continue doing the same, said Richard Fisher, a Korea and China analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

While Kim negotiates with Trump, his engineers are probably perfecting a weapon that can strike the U.S. mainland, Fisher said."They tested two ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) capable of reaching the United States," Fisher said. "They have not yet demonstrated that the missile could carry a warhead that would survive re-entry with some level of accuracy. I’m sure they’re working day and night to develop a viable warhead."

Kim's negotiations with Trump and Moon "allowed this megalomaniac leader to seem reasonable on the world stage," and furthers a shared North Korean and Chinese goal to reduce U.S. influence in northeast Asia, Fisher said.

"Prior to these negotiations, Kim Jong Un was seen as a missile-rattling rocket boy threat to the world. (Chinese President Xi Jinping) couldn’t embrace him," Fisher said. "Now that the negotiations have gone as far as they have, Xi can embrace this young leader and solidify their already very close cooperation."

Other leaders have too. Russia has invited Kim to a conference in Vladivostok in September, and KCNA announced Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad will be the first head of state to visit Kim in Pyongyang.

Kim and China seek an end to the U.S. military presence in South Korea, Fisher said. "They want the Americans off the Korean Peninsula. They want full range and freedom to intimidate South Korea even more and to isolate Japan," he said. "It's all part of a larger goal of forcing American power back to Hawaii and California."</s>As of this morning, we are now less than one week away from an historic summit between the United States and North Korea, but what will that look like? What's the goal? And how long will it last?

President Trump describes it as a meet and greet, but the state department says there's one goal:

"We will not pull back that pressure campaign until North Korea follows through on it's pledge to denuclearize." says Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman.

But the State Department is not in charge of planning this summit between the US and North Korea. The White House is. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweets the location: a posh island hotel in Singapore. But with six days to go, few other details have been made public. Will they discuss easing economic sanctions? And how will eliminating nuclear weapons be verified?

Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut says, "it has to be complete, verifiable and irreversible...and the pressure on North Korea has to be sustained."

And still unknown: how long will this summit last? President Trump has reportedly left open the possibility of meeting for more than just the day. Officials in Singapore are planning for up to three.</s>WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is planning to fly to Canada on Friday. He is not exactly happy about it.

The president has vented privately about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as their trade tensions have spilled into public view. He has mused about finding new ways to punish the northern neighbor in recent days, frustrated with the country’s retaliatory trade moves.

And Trump has complained to aides about spending two days in Canada for a summit of world leaders, believing the trip is a distraction from his upcoming Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with Trump’s views.

In particular, the president said Tuesday to several advisers that he fears attending the Group of Seven summit in rural Charlevoix, Quebec, may not be a good use of his time because he is diametrically opposed on many key issues with his counterparts – and does not want to be lectured by them.

Additionally, Trump has griped periodically both about German Chancellor Angela Merkel – largely because they disagree on many issues and have had an uneasy rapport – as well as British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he sees as too politically correct, advisers say.

Behind the scenes at the White House, there have been staff-level discussions for several days about whether Trump may pull the plug on the trip and send Vice President Mike Pence in his stead, as he did for an April summit of Latin American leaders in Peru.

Then, Trump was preparing for missile strikes in Syria, and opted to remain behind in Washington. Trump was also enraged for several days before the canceled trip to South America about the FBI raids on Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer.

But while Pence stands ready to fill in for Trump again this week, the president is convinced that his attendance at the G-7 summit is essential and is planning to travel Friday morning to Quebec, according to three White House officials.

There also is concern inside the administration about what may happen once Trump arrives in Canada. Aides fear Trump may not sign onto the joint communique that is prepared by participating countries for release at the end of the summit.

Trump is a homebody president, preferring to sleep in the White House – or at one of his signature properties – than in hotels, so is generally reluctant to take long journeys. Furthermore, he prefers visiting places where he is feted – such as on his trips last year to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Beijing and Paris – over attending summits where the attending leaders are treated as equals.

Aides say Trump has been focused on his meeting with Kim and views the G-7 summit as a distraction from those preparations. Trump’s itinerary, which could still change, has him departing on Saturday directly from Quebec to Singapore, where he will meet on June 12 with Kim. Trump hopes that their historic gathering will produce an agreement from the North Koreans to denuclearize its arsenal.

In Quebec, Trump is expected to have tense discussions with the leaders of key Western allies over trade and other issues. Some of them – most especially Trudeau, the summit’s host – have publicly criticized Trump’s new tariffs and characterized the United States as increasingly isolationist. The other six countries signed a sharp condemnation of the president’s tariffs earlier this week.

Trump is planning to be in Quebec and has scheduled bilateral meetings with Trudeau as well as with French President Emmanuel Macron. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, previewed the trip to reporters on Wednesday and dismissed the notion that Trump is reluctant to go to Canada.

“The president wants to go on the trip,” Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters. “The president is at ease with all of these tough issues. He’s proven himself to be a leader on the world stage and he’s achieved great success, as I might add, in foreign policy. So I don’t think there’s any issue there at all.”

Kudlow said any disagreements in Quebec between Trump and his counterparts would be “like a family quarrel,” adding, “I believe it can be worked out.”</s>LA MALBAIE, Quebec (AP) — President Donald Trump injected fresh drama into an already tense meeting of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations Friday, calling for Russia, ousted for its the annexation of Crimea, to be reinstated.

Trump made the comment at the White House Friday after hours of further escalating his rhetoric against longtime allies over U.S. trade practices.

“Why are we having a meeting without Russia in the meeting?” Trump asked. “They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

Solidifying his solo status on the world stage, Trump also lashed out at longtime allies over their criticism of his trade policies. He plans an early exit from the G-7 meeting.

Russia was ousted from the elite group in 2014 as punishment for President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. In the U.S., special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in a bid to sway the 2016 presidential election in his favor.

Trump will arrive Friday at the annual gathering, held this year at a Quebec resort, but will leave Saturday morning before the event is over, heading to Singapore for his highly anticipated summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The White House announced his travel plans after French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signaled they would use the G7 event to take a stance against new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

At a joint press conference on Thursday, Macron said: “A trade war doesn’t spare anyone. It will start first of all to hurt U.S. workers.” Trudeau said: “We are going to defend our industries and our workers.”

Trudeau, for his part, said Trump’s action would hurt American workers as well as Canadians.

“If I can get the president to actually realize that what he’s doing is counterproductive for his own goals as well, perhaps we can move forward in a smarter way,” Trudeau said.

As tempers frayed, Trump had a ready retort, via tweet: “Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”

Later Thursday, Trump tweeted: “Prime Minister Trudeau is being so indignant, bringing up the relationship that the U.S. and Canada had over the many years and all sorts of other things…but he doesn’t bring up the fact that they charge us up to 300% on dairy — hurting our Farmers, killing our Agriculture!”

A few hours later, he added, “Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!”

With a cool reception all but assured, Trump has complained to aides about even having to attend the meeting, especially since his summit with Kim is just days away. Late Thursday, the White House announced that Trump would be leaving the G-7 late Saturday morning to head to Singapore ahead of his summit with Kim, though the G-7 meeting was scheduled to last until later that day.

Trump will skip out on G-7 meetings about climate change, clean energy and ocean protection.

This marks Trump’s second summit of the G-7, an informal gathering every year under a rotating chairmanship. The member countries are Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, the United States and Britain. The European Union also attends. Trump is set to hold a series of group and one-on-one meetings, including with Trudeau and Macron.

Under Trump, the United States has abandoned its traditional role in the G-7. His predecessors pressed for freer global trade and championed a trading system that required countries to follow World Trade Organization rules. Trump’s policies have been more protectionist and confrontational, driven by a perception that the U.S. has been the victim of poorly conceived trade deals.

Relations have hit such a low that a key question now is whether the seven countries can agree on a joint statement of priorities at the conclusion of the meeting. A gathering of G-7 finance ministers days earlier concluded last week with a message of “concern and disappointment” about Trump from the other six countries. France’s finance minister described the group as “far more a G-6 plus one than a G-7.”

Macron said Thursday on Twitter, “The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be.”

Tension has been building over a year of policymaking that has distanced the U.S. from traditional allies, including Trump’s decisions to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and the international Iran nuclear agreement. His new tariffs — 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union — threaten to drive up prices for American consumers and companies and heighten uncertainty for businesses and investors around the globe.

Canada and other U.S. allies are retaliating with tariffs on U.S. exports. Canada is waiting until the end of the month to apply them with the hope the Trump administration will reconsider.

Meanwhile, talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement that eliminated most tariffs and duties between the U.S., Canada and Mexico appear to have ground to a halt. Trump injected further uncertainty recently when he floated the idea of replacing NAFTA with two separate trade deals, one with each country.

Critics argue that the growing U.S. isolation is risky at a time when Trump is making diplomatic overtures with North Korea and in the Middle East and could use the support of allies.

Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, described the relationships between the U.S. and the rest of the G-7 as at a “new level of crisis,” saying that it was not just about trade but “a general U.S. attitude toward the system.”

Despite the conflict, Mallaby predicted that the countries would still seek to work with the U.S., calling it “the indispensable country.”

Likewise, Macron described the moment as a period of “great challenges,” but also defended his efforts to befriend the American president, saying the U.S. is a historical ally and “we need them.”</s>Abe to press Trump to raise issue of abducted at Kim summit

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, unable to meet North Korea's leader himself, is heading to Washington to try to make sure President Donald Trump doesn't overlook Japan's security and other concerns at the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit next week.

Abe will have less than two hours to make his points to Trump at the White House on Thursday, before both go to Canada for a G-7 summit on Friday and Saturday, and the American president then flies to Singapore for his June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Japan, which relied on the U.S. for its post-World War II diplomacy and security, has been absent in the recent burst of engagement with North Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both met Kim twice, as Abe waits his turn to raise Japan's concerns directly.

"I want to make sure to be on the same page with President Trump ahead of the first ever U.S.-North Korea summit so we can push forward nuclear and missile issues, and most importantly the abduction problem, and make for a successful summit," Abe told reporters before leaving for the airport.

Abe doesn't want Trump to strike a compromise that would leave Japan exposed to shorter-range missiles that do not threaten the U.S. mainland or that relieves pressure on North Korea before it takes concrete steps toward complete denuclearization. He is expected to ask Trump once again to raise with Kim the fate of Japanese abducted by the North in the 1970s and 1980s.

"It wouldn't be my style to have to ask the U.S. for help on the abduction issue," said Hitoshi Tanaka, a former diplomat and head of a think tank, the Institute for International Strategy. "It's embarrassing that a state leader has to ask another leader in resolving the sovereignty of his people."

While in Washington, Abe will also likely press Trump to remove Japan from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, as well as express his opposition to threats of sharply higher U.S. tariffs on imported automobiles. Abe said he will show at the G-7 summit his full backing for Trump on North Korea, but he will urge everyone to take leadership in promoting free and fair trade rather than escalating disputes.

Japan hopes to hold talks with North Korea after a successful Trump-Kim summit. Abe has said he is open to meeting with Kim, but only if it would lead to resolving the abduction issue. He said Japan would then normalize ties and provide economic aid as rewards for a North Korean commitment to both denuclearization and resolution of the abduction issue.

Japanese analysts agree that if Abe's turn to meet Kim comes, it would be at the very end of a long process as Trump and other regional leaders deal with North Korea's denuclearization.

"Japan eventually should develop its own diplomacy to deal with North Korea independently to resolve its problems, including the abductions," said Atsuhito Isozaki, a Keio University professor specializing in North Korea.

He said that economic aid or financial compensation for Japan's 35-year colonization of Korea could be attractive, but noted that North Korea now has other potential sources of assistance.

"Japan's economy does not stand out in northeast Asia as it did 16 years ago," he said, when Pyongyang and Tokyo last tried to negotiate a normalization of ties. Without Japan's help, North Korea has arranged a summit with the U.S. and possible economic cooperation from South Korea, he said this week at a briefing for media.

After a 2002 summit between then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese and allowed five of them to visit Japan, though they then stayed, angering North Korea. Japan says at least 17 Japanese were abducted and possibly more.

Japanese officials are scrambling to get information on the Trump-Kim summit. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan will dispatch diplomats to Singapore to try to get the latest updates.

After his last meeting with Trump in April, Abe said the two leaders were in complete agreement on North Korea policy, namely to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete action toward verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

Concerns have since grown in Japan that Trump may be prioritizing holding a summit rather than the goal of full denuclearization. Abe, who has played tough on the North, also worries that a growing reconciliatory mood between the two Koreas may prompt leniency toward Pyongyang.

Trump's recent statement that he doesn't want to keep using the phrase "maximum pressure" against North Korea reinforced those fears.

North Korea's state media Korea Central News Agency criticized Abe and other Japanese officials for insisting on pressuring the North. KCNA, quoting the Rodong Shimmun newspaper, said Japan worries about being "marginalized from the structure around the Korean Peninsula."</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and the annual Group of Seven meeting of industrialized nations (all times local):

President Donald Trump says he won't be talking about the Russia probe for a while because he'll be focused on trade talks at the annual Group of Seven meeting of industrialized nations.

Trump notes on Twitter that he's heading for Canada, where the nations' leaders are gathering at a Quebec resort. Several are expected to challenge Trump's new trade policies, which include tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Trump tweets that the talks "will mostly center on the long time unfair trade practiced against the United States." After that, he'll head to Singapore for a summit with North Korea.

He adds: "Won't be talking about the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax for a while!"

President Donald Trump says he is looking forward to "straightening out unfair Trade Deals" at the annual Group of Seven meeting.

The group of industrialized nations is gathering at a Quebec resort for discussions that are expected to be tense. The leaders from France and Canada say they will push back against new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Trump showed no signs of budging on his trade policies Friday, tweeting: "Looking forward to straightening out unfair Trade Deals with the G-7 countries. If it doesn't happen, we come out even better!

President Donald Trump is set to descend on the annual Group of Seven meeting of industrialized nations, expecting tough trade talks as his go-it-alone policies leave him increasingly isolated.

On the eve of Friday's gathering at a Quebec resort, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previewed what will likely be a tense two days. They stressed the need for respectful dialogue but say they will push back against new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as they have on other issues.

Trump is showing no signs of backing away from what he sees as key campaign promises. He tweeted Thursday: "Getting ready to go to the G-7 in Canada to fight for our country on Trade (we have the worst trade deals ever made)."

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>In the run-up to the Canada summit of the Group of Seven advanced economies, stresses are showing. Analysts say the host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, can be expected to try to play down the rifts and focus on common interests. But even he has bluntly criticized President Trump’s “national security” tariffs. If the G7, a cornerstone of the US-led postwar world order, is not in crisis, the feeling is that it’s under assault. The leaders Mr. Trump will be meeting with in Quebec were already dismayed by his withdrawal from the Paris climate accords and the Iran nuclear deal. But it was the imposing of tariffs against US allies last week on national security grounds that stung most sharply and raised the specter of what some are fearing will unfold as the “G6 + 1” summit. There have been “family quarrels” before. But, says Heather Conley, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, those were over issues. “It was not the fundamental underpinnings of the international system that the US created,” she says. “That is now what feels at stake.”

Just about everyone agrees that the post-World-War-II order of institutions and alliances that the United States built and guided over seven decades is under siege and threatened.

It’s a system of economic and security ties that expanded global prosperity and spread Western values of democratic governance and human rights around the world.

But this weekend in Canada, at the annual summit of the Group of Seven advanced economies – part of the constellation of organizations making up the US-led order – there is less unity over who and what forces are responsible for the weakening of that system.

For President Trump – who just last week slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on five of the other six countries whose leaders he’ll be sitting down with in Quebec (the US already hit the sixth, Japan, with tariffs earlier this year) – the fault lies largely with the allies and partners who have profited from the economic and security order at America’s expense.

To this way of thinking, American taxpayers have paid for European and Asian allies’ security, while American workers have paid dearly for the world’s economic prosperity through their exported jobs.

But for America’s closest partners, and for many analysts who specialize in the challenges facing the US-led order, the responsible party is Mr. Trump himself – and more broadly a retreat of American leadership into nationalist economics and protectionism, and away from the international leadership role the US has played for 70 years.

Even before boarding his early morning flight to Canada, Trump, via remarks to reporters, fired off a proposal sure to further antagonize American allies: his recommendation that Russia, ousted from what was then the G8 four years ago over its annexation of the Crimea, should be readmitted.

Trump's off-the-cuff proposal may especially rile Europeans – perhaps its purpose – who have stuck with costly sanctions on Russia largely at America's behest. More broadly, Trump's call to re-admit Vladimir Putin's Russia to the Western leaders' club will raise doubts about Trump's understanding of the role the G7 has played and about US leadership of the international system.

The leaders Trump will meet in Quebec were already dismayed by his withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known better as the Iran nuclear deal, and by his threats to weaken US participation in NATO and Asian security alliances.

But it was the Trump administration’s imposing of tariffs against European countries, Canada, and Mexico, last week on national security grounds that most sharply stung some allied leaders.

Trump’s decision represented a shift away from the more traditional postwar interpretation of allies like NATO partners as “reliable” sources of essential materials like steel for defense industries, to more of a go-it-alone reliance on domestic producers.

That action also raised the specter not just of a trade war among friends but of a waning Western order weakened from within – and more immediately of what some are fearing will unfold as the “G6 + 1” summit, with Trump’s America the odd man out.

“I do think we have reached a little bit of a Rubicon moment over whether the United States is going to turn its back on this economic order,” says Thomas Wright, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe in Washington.

At the same time, no one expects the G7 summit ending Saturday to mark a watershed moment for the Western alliance – with either a resolution of the trade frictions or with a full-blown falling-out between the US and its allies.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, told reporters this week that the discord the president is likely to encounter among G7 leaders would be akin to a “family quarrel” over issues that “can be worked out.”

For one thing, Trump is likely to be preoccupied with his historic summit just days away with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, some experts say. Trump has reportedly told aides that he feels the G7 meeting will be a distraction before the Singapore summit with Kim.

Moreover, the G7 host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, can be expected to try to downplay the elite club’s rifts and focus on common interests, analysts add. As Canada’s leader, Mr. Trudeau has been blunt in his criticism of Trump’s “national security” tariffs. But some see him redirecting to messages of unity as he greets his guests.

“Justin Trudeau would clearly like to avoid a G6 + 1,” says Samantha Gross, a fellow in climate and energy policy at Brookings. Still, she worries that the deep divisions, including over tariffs and broader trade policy, could sideline the more unifying topics Trudeau might wish to highlight.

The falling out between the US and its allies ratcheted up a few notches Thursday, when French President Emmanuel Macron – received at the White House in late April as Trump’s BFF – threatened to isolate Trump at the G7 by pushing for a rebuke of the US over the tariffs.

Trump’s response? Bring it on. Hurling back accusations that Mr. Macron and Trudeau are “charging the US massive tariffs” and “keeping our farmers out,” Trump tweeted, “Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”

Administration officials say that, even if the president and his national security advisers seem focused on North Korea’s denuclearization right now, the challenges facing the West and the US-led global order have been at the top of the Trump administration’s agenda from Day 1.

They point to documents like Trump’s first National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, which zero in on the aggressive challenges that non-Western “big powers” – namely Russia and China – are ramping up to undermine and supplant the US-led order of private-enterprise-based economies and liberal democracies.

But the US cannot continue to lead this international order if its outcome is greater global prosperity at America’s expense, these officials add – thus the Trump argument that Western allies and partners who have benefited from the postwar system need to step up and pay more as America refortifies itself at home.

“A strong America is good for Americans, but it is also good for our allies and for the world,” the State Department’s top Europe diplomat, Wess Mitchell, said in a speech at Washington’s Heritage Foundation this week.

“American strength is the foundation upon which the world as we know it rests,” Secretary Mitchell said, “and if that foundation is vulnerable, all we believe in, all that we ground our strength upon – democracy, markets, deterrence – all of that is vulnerable as well.”

Moreover, Mitchell suggested that the actions Trump has taken that have separated the US from its chief allies – whether exiting the Iran deal or imposing steel tariffs – are aimed at strengthening America so it can better defend the West against common enemies.

“In taking strong positions, we are not targeting our allies,” he said, underscoring “not.” Calling out Russia, China, and Iran, as the real threats “putting our collective security at risk,” he added, “We urge our allies to take these and other threats to Western security more seriously than they have in the past.”

One problem some see with the Trump approach to rescuing (and leading) the West and the postwar order is that it mixes tough measures toward allies with outreach to adversaries like North Korea and Russia, Trump’s pre-flight comments Friday being a case in point.

“It’s this split-screen image where it’s growing tensions with our closest partners and allies and then … juxtapose that … with the White House seeking a summit with President Putin and looking to the good meeting with Kim Jong-un,” says Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It feels like we are treating our allies with contempt, while we are feting our adversaries.”

To be sure, there have been “family quarrels” before, as Mr. Kudlow, the economic adviser, suggests – within the G7 over US monetary policy, among NATO allies over the installation of US nuclear weapons in Europe, and more recently the Iraq war.

But those were disagreements over issues, Ms. Conley says, whereas now she says it’s the basis of the international order – American leadership of a community of like-minded nations – that is in question.

At each instance of squabbling until now “it was [over] an issue. It was not the fundamental underpinnings of the international system that the US created in the post-World War II environment. That is now what feels at stake,” she says, “and that’s what is different.”</s>US president Donald Trump has hit out at the European Union and Canada as he departed Washington for the G7 summit in Canada, calling on Russia to be invited to rejoin the group of advanced industrisalised nations.

In extensive comments to journalists as he prepared to board Air Force One, Mr Trump said Russia – which was expelled from the group following its incursion into Ukraine in 2014 and annexation of Crimea – should be readmitted to the group.

“Russia should be in this meeting. Whether you like it or not and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. They threw Russia out, they should let Russia back in,” he said in comments that are likely to infuriate America’s European allies, who took a strong stance against Russia over its annexation of Crimea.

The G7 meeting, which begins in the small village of Charlevoix on Friday, is likely to be dominated by trade issues, following Washington’s decision to impose steel and aluminium tariffs on imports and its ongoing efforts to renegotiate Nafta – the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“All of these countries have been taking advantage of us. We have to straighten it out. We have massive trade deficits with almost every country,” Mr Trump said as he departed Washington.

His comments followed a series of early-morning tweets. “Looking forward to straightening out unfair Trade Deals with the G-7 countries. If it doesn’t happen, we come out even better!” Mr Trump tweeted on Friday.

This year’s annual G7 gathering takes place against a background of deteriorating relations between the United States and the other six members.

In a tweet on Thursday, French president Emanuel Macron said: “The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be. Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.”

“Please tell [Canadian] Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the US massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers,” the US president wrote. “The EU trade surplus with the US is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out.”

Among Mr Trump’s first engagements on arrival in Quebec is a bilateral meeting with the French president. Just last month the two spent two days together in Washington when the Donald and Melania Trump welcomed Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, on an official state visit.

Washington’s decision not to extend a waiver that had been granted to the EU, Canada and Mexico on steel and aluminium imports on June 1st, has annoyed European allies, who have threatened reciprocal measures.

Mr Trump is expected to leave the summit early, raising speculation that he may not sign the joint communique that is typically the most immediate and material outcomes of global summits.

He will fly directly from Canada to Singapore for next Tuesday’s historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The US president also told reporters that he was considering pardons for 3,000 people, including Muhammed Ali. It follows his decision this week to commute the life sentence of Alice Johnson, a grandmother who was convicted of a drugs offence in 1996, following an intervention by celebrity Kim Kardashian West.
Donald Trump says that he might invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the United States if the planned summit meeting in Singapore goes well.