We, too, have been greeted in a setting that is so superb and that speaks of a tradition of graciousness toward friends that reaches back to antiquity. Let me also thank the Japanese people. The welcome we have received in Tokyo, for the second time in my presidency, speaks eloquently about the friendship between our peoples. You have made us all feel very much at home. In a relationship as vast and complex as ours, one that has been analyzed by so many in so many different ways, no number or statistic can begin to capture the value of this friendship to both our nations.
History is filled with changing alliances between states.
But history offers very few examples of two peoples who have forged such a powerful relationship in the short period of half a century. We have indeed traveled far together. In only these five decades, we have reaped enormous benefits, building the two largest economies in the world and creating a tremendous force for security and stability during an era of constant change and frequent upheaval. Today, we carried forward that tradition. We revitalized the alliance that has provided such crucial stability in Asia.