US allies in Asia-Pacific rattled by resignation

Resigned on Oct 9 sydney/seoul — The abrupt resignation of US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis sparked concern among Asia-Pacific allies who credit the retired general with building trust and tempering isolationist impulses, regional officials and analysts said on Friday.

The region — which includes strong US allies Japan, South Korea and Australia — hosts some of the world’s most volatile flashpoints, with high tension on the Korean peninsula and China’s militarisation of the South China Sea causing friction.

Mattis, who embraced America’s traditional alliances, said he was quitting after falling out with President Donald Trump over foreign policy, including surprise decisions this week to pull troops from Syria and start planning a drawdown in Afghanistan.

“He has generally been referred to as one of the adults in the Trump administration,” Australian government Senator Jim Molan told The Australian newspaper. He said his departure was concerning because it introduced “another extreme variable” into US decision making.

Mattis has been a vocal critic of China’s increasing presence in the South China Sea but he worked to ensure tensions did not boil over.

“He’s been the point of continuity and the gatekeeper in the administration that they’ve relied on most to temper the instincts of Trump, which are much more, I think, isolationist and clearly highly sceptical ... about alliance commitments,” said foreign policy and security analyst Euan Graham, executive director of La Trobe Asia at Australia’s La Trobe University. Mattis’ departure also robs Australia, without a US ambassador since 2016, of a key ally in the Trump administration.

“Australia has always had the ear of Mattis,” a US-based diplomatic source told Reuters.

Australia has had roughly 800 troops in the Middle East since 2014, mostly based in Iraq, as part of coalition efforts to combat the Daesh group.

Adam Mount, defence analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said Mattis was a steady hand on North Korea and was instrumental in preventing a war. “Mattis was bailing water out of an alliance being buffeted by an erratic president, an advancing North Korea, and an increasingly assertive China,” Mount said.

“His work kept the alliance afloat but major questions will have to be resolved to keep it strong,” he said.

It is a shame that this president, who is plunging the nation into chaos, is throwing another temper tantrum and is going to hurt lots of innocent people.”

Chuck Schumer, Senator from New York

The president (Donald Trump) always listens to the members of his national security team, but at the end of the day it is the president’s decision to make.”

Sarah Sanders,

White House spokeswoman

We are headed toward a series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances & empower our adversaries.”

Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida