NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday “shocking” and “profoundly disturbing,” describing him as a leader of great vision and an extraordinary partner for the United States.
Blinken made the comments at the start of a trilateral meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers in Bali.
Blinken said that to the United States, Abe “was an extraordinary partner and someone who was clearly a great leader.”
He said Abe brought the relationship between the United States and Japan “to new heights” during his time in office.
“He was a leader with great vision,” Blinken said calling Abe’s death “a loss for Japan, a loss for the world.”
At the same event, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin condemned the shooting, saying that such violence should not be tolerated.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election in Japan, shocking a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Editing by William Maclean)
