Bob Savic says having recently consolidated their power domestically, both leaders should have a freer hand to cooperate and advance common goals, among them a resolution of the North Korea nuclear stand-off.
China’s 19th Communist Party Congress ended with the inclusion of President Xi Jinping’s name and political thought into the party’s constitution, elevating his status as a leader alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. A few days before, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, already the country’s third-longest-serving political leader, consolidated his position towards becoming the longest serving by winning a new term in office.