If new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was looking to make a connection with U.S. President Donald Trump, she certainly knew the right language to speak.

As the leaders met for the first time in Tokyo and clasped hands, the president remarked, “That’s a very strong handshake.”

After saying she thinks Trump would be a good selection for the Nobel Peace Prize, Takaichi said she and the president were running a little behind because they were watching the beginning of the World Series.

Also, Takaichi made a wise decision in her gift selection: She offered Trump a golf bag signed by 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama.

She told Trump that her country would be giving the United States 250 cherry blossom trees in honor of its 250th birthday celebration next year. She also said Japan would provide fireworks for the celebration.

The leaders and their advisers later dined on American rice and beef, cooked with Japanese ingredients, during a working lunch. They discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and critical minerals, the White House said.

Also among the gifts offered up was a putter used by Shinzo Abe, his golfing buddy and the country’s late leader. Displayed in a glass case, the club was just one of a litany of references to Trump’s bond with Abe that underpinned ties between the countries during his first term.

It is a bond that Takaichi, a protegee of Abe, who was assassinated by a lone gunman in 2022, will be eager to rekindle to bolster her minority administration and navigate thorny issues such as defense spending that might crop up, analysts say.

“I think it has significant meaning,” said Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker who served as Abe’s aide during Trump’s first term, speaking about the leaders’ shared connection to the slain prime minister.

“I believe the relationship of trust between two top leaders like this is certain to lead to the strengthening of the alliance,” he said.

Coincidentally, the long-awaited trial of the man accused of fatally shooting Abe began on Tuesday in the western city of Nara, Takaichi’s hometown.

Talk turned to Abe as soon as Trump stepped into the ornate Akasaka Palace in central Tokyo to exchange pleasantries and pose for photos with Takaichi, a hardline conservative who became Japan’s first female leader last week.

“He was a great friend of mine and a great friend of yours,” Trump said as the pair shook hands. Takaichi was given her first cabinet post in Abe’s initial 2006-2007 administration and later elevated to home minister in his second 2012-2020 term.

At the start of summit talks with Trump after a lavish honor guard welcome, Takaichi first thanked him for his “enduring friendship” with Abe and for hosting his widow, Akie Abe, at his Mar-a-Lago retreat shortly after Trump’s election victory last year.

Her words were translated into English by Sunao Takao, an interpreter formerly used by Abe, whom Trump once jokingly referred to as junior prime minister.

Mark Davidson, a former senior U.S. diplomat in Japan who teaches politics at Temple University in Tokyo, said it was a smart move for Takaichi to invoke Abe’s memory.

“With President Trump, all politics is personal,” said Davidson. “He had a very close, warm and trusting relationship with Prime Minister Abe. I think that Prime Minister Takaichi’s close ties with late Prime Minister Abe set up this relationship for success.

Takaichi and Trump also signed a pair of baseball caps emblazoned with ‘JAPAN IS BACK’, a catchphrase first used by Abe that Takaichi adopted in her leadership campaign.

Abe was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his 2016 victory, the start of a relationship that blossomed over several rounds of golf in the United States and Japan.