Steve Bannon, the controversial former chief strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday credited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for pioneering a global "nationalist" movement while urging him to form a united front with Washington against an "expansionist" and "predatory" China.

Bannon was in Tokyo to address dozens of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a gathering held at its headquarters in Nagatacho — the political center of Japan.

In the speech, Bannon — often hailed as the key architect of the 2016 presidential campaign that catapulted Trump into America's highest office — reflected on how his team was "inundated" with calls from governments all over the world the moment the real estate mogul accomplished the "most unexpected victory in the history of the United States."