Trump must forge Pacific alliances
For a president who was elected on a campaign platform of America First, Donald Trump does not shrink from the diplomatic requirements of his office. He arrived yesterday in Japan to begin the longest trip to Asia by any US leader for 25 years at a time when the region is pivotal to Washington’s interests, both in terms of trade and security.
His predecessor Barack Obama – literally a Pacific president born in Hawaii – recalibrated foreign policy away from Europe and the Middle East and more towards China, the rising Asian power, and other countries in the region. This was formalised through the 12-nation Trans-pacific Partnership, President Obama’s signature trade agreement. Yet within days of his entering the White House it was repudiated by Mr Trump, who had been critical of the TPP during the election.
The new president may prefer to work on a bilateral basis where trade is concerned but when it comes to security he knows that a comprehensive approach is needed. The big issue for discussion will be what to do about North Korea. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has a new and bigger popular mandate to take a tough line with Pyongyang; and Mr Trump will meet President Xi Jinping of China – now ensconced in Beijing with added authority after the recent party congress – to discuss a strategy for containing Kim Jong-un and his nuclear programme.
The trip will also include a meeting with Vladimir Putin at an East Asia summit to be held in the Philippines later in the month. If ever there was an opportunity to forge a common front against North Korea’s reckless nuclear posturing this must be it. If Beijing and Moscow seriously want to thwart the prospect of unilateral US military action against North Korea then they will need to start exerting their influence over the regime on Pyongyang.
A more parochial lesson can be drawn from Mr Trump’s trip. He is visiting the major Asian powers and in his first 10 months has been to France and Germany, but not to the UK. Even though Theresa May was the first foreign leader to invite him, there is no likelihood of a visit soon; and when it does it will be informal because of the threat of protests and the juvenile hostility of the opposition which a weak Government cannot easily confront. Brexit was supposed to give Britain a more global perspective, yet our politics look dangerously insular, irrelevant and aimless.