The summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and US President Donald Trump represents a watershed moment for the Indo-Pacific. Takaichi arrived in Washington not as a junior partner seeking protection, but as a “popular, powerful” leader (in Trump’s own words), wielding a historic electoral mandate and a $550 billion checkbook. The summit exposed the transactional and high-stakes nature of the alliance under a second Trump term, specifically regarding Taiwan’s stability and the escalating conflict in West Asia.

The centrepiece of the visit was the progress on the 2025 US-Japan strategic trade and investment agreement. This is a geoeconomic blueprint designed to “re-industrialise” America using Japanese capital. Key projects, such as GE Vernova Hitachi’s Small Modular Reactor........

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