Trump to make Asia trip
WEAKENED on the domestic front, President Donald Trump embarks this week on a long and challenging Asian tour set to be dominated by the North Korean nuclear threat after months of verbal escalation between Washington and Pyongyang.
Taking him from Japan to South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, the November 3-14 trip is the US leader’s first to the region since his election exactly a year ago.
On his agenda are several key regional summits – but also closely-watched face-to-face meetings, including with his powerful Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and controversial Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte.
With his approval ratings at record lows, will the 71-year-old president manage to leave behind spectacular recent developments in a probe into Russian election meddling? Will he forego his morning tweeting for the duration of the 12-day trip?
The White House has sought to emphasise the length of the fivenation tour – the longest by any US president since George HW Bush in 1991 – as a sign of Trump’s commitment to engaging with the region.
But doubts linger on that point, most notably on the economic front following Trump’s abrupt decision – three days into office – to pull out of the TPP trans-Pacific trade deal, which unsettled several signatories and Japan in particular. Supporters of the deal – struck in 2015 by 12 nations who together account for 40% of the world economy – had championed it as a vital counterweight to the growing influence of China.
After a brief stopover in Hawaii, Trump will join his “friend” Shinzo Abe on Sunday in Japan for a round of golf before a series of meetings aimed at underscoring the strength of the US-Japanese alliance.
In South Korea, Trump – unlike many of his predecessors – will not travel to the Demilitarised Zone dividing the Korean peninsula, instead delivering what is set to be a closely-scrutinised speech before the country’s national assembly.
Seoul will hope during Trump’s two-day visit, starting on Tuesday, for a reaffirmation of its alliance with Washington, at a time when the North is pushing ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in defiance of the international community.
It is also seeking reassurances of a different nature.
“South Koreans also want to know that the US is not going to prematurely or unnecessarily draw South Korea into any kind of military conflict,” said Scott Snyder of the New York-based thinktank the Council on Foreign Relations.
Since taking office, the US president has vowed to unleash “fire and fury” if threatened by Kim Jong-Un’s regime, has contradicted his top diplomat about direct contacts with Pyongyang, and has sent out a string of cryptic messages – “We’ll do what has to be done!” – that have left observers guessing at his true intentions toward North Korea.
After Seoul, the 45th US president heads to Beijing next Wednesday to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping just weeks after Xi was formally handed a second term in power, solidifying his grip on the world’s most populous nation.
In Vietnam on Friday, Trump will take part in an Apec summit in Danang, and deliver a speech on his vision for a “free and open Indo-Pacific region” that is eagerly awaited by the business community.
Wrapping up his trip in Manila on November 12-13, Trump will take part in the Asean summit of South East Asian leaders, and will hold what could turn out to be a colourful one-on-one with the outspoken Duterte, whose bloody crackdown on alleged drug gang members has drawn widespread condemnation.
Critics note that while Barack Obama was among the many international critics of Duterte’s drug war, his successor in the White House has struck a far more conciliatory tone, praising the controversial leader as doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”. — AFP