Trump talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi off to positive start

again on Thursday for not joining Nato and other nations in supporting the US war effort, adding that he would be “singing Japan’s praises” when he next met Chinese President Xi Jinping

in “about a month and a half” following a delay attributed to the war.

“We’ve had tremendous support and relationship with Japan,” Trump said sitting beside Takaichi on matching gold-coloured chairs in the White House Oval Office. “And I believe … they are really stepping up to the plate.”

Asked by a Japanese reporter why he kept secret from its closest Asian ally, the US and Israeli plans to attack Iran

, however, Trump ploughed through diplomatic niceties, suggesting that Japan

, of all countries, should understand the military benefit of secrecy.

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” he said. “You didn’t tell me about Pearl Harbour, okay, right?” Surprise, he added, allowed the Pentagon to knock out Iran’s military capability in the first two days with the “incredible” US military.