In news many never would have predicted,Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated US controversial President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize last autumn after being requested to do so by Washington, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.
Washington sounded out Tokyo over the possibility of nominating Trump for the prize after his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in June last year, an unnamed Japanese government source told the Asahi Shimbun.
The report came after Trump’s claim on Friday that Abe had nominated him for the prize.
Trump said Abe had sent him a copy of a five-page nomination letter delivered to the Nobel Peace Prize committee in which the Japanese leader praised his efforts in defusing tensions with Pyongyang.
“He said ‘I have nominated you respectfully on behalf of Japan. I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize.’ I said thank you,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“Many other people feel that way, too. I’ll probably never get it. That’s okay.”
A spokesman for Japan’s Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said the ministry was aware of Trump’s remarks, but “would refrain from commenting on the interaction between the two leaders.”
The Nobel Foundation’s website says a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any person who meets the nomination criteria, which includes current heads of states. Under the foundation’s rules, names and other information about unsuccessful nominations cannot be disclosed for 50 years.