WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday met with Akie Abe, the widow of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, his wife said.

The former president, who will return to the White House for his second term on Jan. 20, and Melania Trump are believed to have hosted a private dinner for her. It is the first known meeting between Trump and a Japanese individual since he won the Nov. 5 presidential election.

"It was a privilege to host Mrs. Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago once again," Trump's wife said on X, posting a photo of the three, with Akie Abe in the middle. "We fondly remembered her late husband, former Prime Minister Abe, and honored his remarkable legacy."

Her visit to Trump's estate took place about a month after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was unable to hold an in-person meeting with the president-elect on his way back to Tokyo from South America, despite his hope to do so.

Speaking to reporters in Peru after attending an international meeting, Ishiba at the time said Trump's team had explained that the president-elect could not hold talks with him before taking office due to legal constraints.

Since then, however, Trump has held talks with other world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Among world leaders, Trump was on particularly good terms with the late Prime Minister Abe during his first presidency.

Their warm relationship began shortly after the 2016 presidential election, when Abe rushed to Trump Tower in New York to meet with the president-elect and presented him with a golden golf club.

Abe, who joined him for golf on multiple occasions, resigned in 2020 for health reasons. He was fatally shot during an election campaign speech about two years later.

==Kyodo

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