Bush and Koizumi get set to say goodbye

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi are set for a symbolic, last diplomatic duet on US soil, before making a pilgrimage to the Graceland shrine to the Japanese leader's hero, Elvis Presley.

Though Thursday's trip is shaping up as a thank-you and goodbye for Koizumi on his last official visit to Washington, weighty issues will intrude, with Asia on edge over an expected North Korean missile test.

US officials said they also want to send a message that Koizumi has been a transformational leader for Japan, and they want the relationship to maintain the course he has set.

There will also be a whiff of nostalgia, after five years in which relations markedly improved, rooted in a rapport between the two leaders.

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