Trump backs away from critical positions on China, NATO
Foreign policy roundup
WASHINGTON — The United States and China struck what was viewed as an unusual bargain Wednesday as President Donald Trump said he won’t label China a currency manipulator and voiced confidence Chinese President Xi Jinping will help him deal with North Korea’s mounting threat.
Another result of the diplomatic wrangling: a surprising Chinese abstention on a U.N. resolution condemning a Syrian chemical weapons attack.
Also on Wednesday, Mr. Trump backed away from another firm position that he had held for months on the campaign trail: He embraced NATO as a “bulwark of international peace and security” after a White House meeting Wednesday with the alliance’s chief.
On China, in a newspaper interview and a White House news conference, Mr. Trump hailed the rapport he developed with Mr. Xi during last week’s Florida summit, which seems to have yielded an immediate easing of tensions related to the U.S.-Chinese trade imbalance and how to prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S.
“I think he wants to help us with North Korea,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Xi, crediting China in the news conference with taking a “big step” by turning back boats of coal that North Korea sells to its northern neighbor. North Korea conducts some 90 percent of its trade with China.
And in one of the sharpest reverses of his presidency, Mr. Trump backed off from a campaign pledge by saying he would not declare China to be a currency manipulator, an action that could have led to higher tariffs on Chinese goods. The accusation had formed a basis of Mr. Trump’s argument for lost American jobs, on the grounds that an undervaluing currency was boosting Chinese exports and leading to artificially low prices, all at U.S. manufacturers’ expense.
“They’re not currency manipulators,” Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal earlier Wednesday, saying the country hadn’t been cheating on its currency for months. He said a U.S. declaration of Chinese manipulation could jeopardize talks with China on North Korea.
Asked specifically if his decision on currency was part of an agreement over North Korea, Mr. Trump responded: “We’re going to see. We’re going to see about that.”
He also repeated that trade concessions could be on the table for more cooperation on North Korea.
‘No longer obsolete’
In what was viewed as an embrace of a much more establishment view, Mr. Trump said he was 100 percent behind NATO, the military alliance created in 1949 that he previously called “obsolete.”
“I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, adding that the alliance was increasing cooperation to stem terror attacks, among other steps.
Mr. Trump met with Mr. Stoltenberg in the Oval Office for an hour.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly said NATO countries were not shouldering their fair share of defense costs, leaving too much of the burden on the United States.
Mr. Trump said his comments led the alliance to make changes that satisfied his concerns.
The president’s comments came a day after the Trump administration supported the admission of Montenegro into NATO in part to counter the influence of Russia in the small Balkan nation, a senior White House official said on Wednesday, citing “credible reports” that Moscow backed a plot for a violent election-day attack there last fall.