Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren President JOE BIDEN devoted three days this week to hosting Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA FUMIO, a foreign leader with closely aligned priorities. But it was Biden’s man in Tokyo, Ambassador RAHM EMANUEL, who played a leading role in fostering that relationship and cementing many of the agreements (i.e. “deliverables,” in bureaucratic parlance) announced at the White House this week. He’s also helped execute the administration’s policy in the Asia-Pacific while maintaining his distinctive political style in a country where that may seem, shall we say, out of place. Emanuel spoke to West Wing Playbook about the impact of this state visit. This conversation has been edited for clarity. First of all, how’s your library? It’s beautiful. Everybody loves it. They say, ‘Let me see the famous library.’ Okay. The state visit: What would you tell one of your old constituents in Chicago if they said, ‘Hey, who cares? What’s in it for me?’ A million Americans are employed by Japanese investors. They’re the number one foreign investor in the United States. So that’s first and foremost, if I’m over at Al’s Beef and someone asks why this matters. But also, this is an example where two countries who 75 years ago were the bitterest of foes and today they’re the best of friends. The other piece of this is obviously China. It's better to have not just us dealing with China, but to have like-minded allies who want to put their oar in the water and pull in the same direction. That’s what Thursday’s trilateral summit with Japan and the Philippines is also about, not just strengthening ties with allies but between those allies themselves. Yeah, this is what we did last year with Japan and Korea. We're switching our strategy from what has been known or referred to in shorthand as a hub and spoke, to a latticework where there's multi-national [relationships]. We started the week with a military exercise of four countries: the United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines; and we are ending the week in a trilateral with the United States, Japan and the Philippines. That is what deterrence looks like. The military exercises have a clear purpose after some skirmishes in the South China Sea. But a red carpet welcome at the White House — what is that accomplishing? And what is it like? You can never underestimate the importance of a one-on-one. The president and prime minister have gotten together about 12 times. But a state visit carries an elevated kind of moment. And I hate using this State Department jargon because it sounds like I’ve had an invasion of the body snatchers, but: 72 deliverables! That’s a massive amount of business across a spectrum of areas. The space collaboration is interesting, and something you’ve worked on a lot. In the last two years, we've signed an Artemis agreement, a gateway agreement, a Mars exploration agreement, an International Space Station agreement, and then the fundamental framework agreement. And now the president just announced that Japan is going to be building the lunar vehicle. And the first foreign astronaut to be on Artemis will be Japan. You left out another accomplishment of yours: securing that visa for Shohei Ohtani’s dog. That was pretty good, right? I guess he and the other Japanese baseball players in MLB couldn’t attend the dinner because the season has started. No, they couldn’t make the dinner. But I’ll tell you a funny story. I went to see Kishida [in early 2022] and I knew he was interested in baseball. I had the Cubs and the White Sox make him jerseys that both said ‘Kishida’ [with the number] 100, because he’s the 100th prime minister. I gave those gifts publicly and he, maybe by coincidence, holds up the Cubs jersey. That’s Friday. Saturday I get a call from the Cubs president Jed [Hoyer], who’s a friend. He says, ‘Hey, we’re trying to get this guy, Seiya Suzuki, to sign with us. Would you mind doing a video and holding up a Cubs jersey?’ I said, ‘Look, man, I’m the U.S. ambassador now, not Chicago’s ambassador. But I’ll do you one better.’ I told him that I just gave the prime minister two jerseys and he picked up the Cubs. I said, ‘If you go to the news, you can get the [footage] of the prime minister holding up the Cubs jersey.’ Wait. You’re saying Suzuki chose the Cubs because… They put that in the video and well…I don’t know. You know, since last August he’s a top five hitter in all of baseball. I like to joke with [Kishida]: ‘You didn’t even get your 10 percent commission.’ MESSAGE US — Are you SHOHEI OHTANI’S DOG? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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