WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama and Shinzo Abe, Japan's premier-in-waiting, reaffirmed on Monday evening the alliance between their countries as the cornerstone of peace and security in the region.
In their phone conversation, Obama again congratulated Abe, who is also president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, for his party's landslide victory in Sunday's House of Representatives elections.
"Both sides reaffirmed the importance of the US-Japan alliance as the cornerstone of peace and security in the region," the White House said in a statement.
"The president and Abe discussed ongoing efforts to enhance bilateral security cooperation as well as deepening economic ties, " the statement said, adding that they also agreed on the importance of close US-Japan cooperation on pressing regional and global issues.
Abe, Japan's prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007, is set to return to the premiership as his party and its key ally, the New Komeito Party, garnered an absolute majority of 325 seats in the 480-member lower house.
Obama issued a statement on Sunday extending his congratulations to Abe on his party's victory.
Related:
Japan's swing to the right will have consequences
Abe anxious to curry favor with US
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
