Mattis seeks to calm Pacific allies
He calls N. Korea urgent threat, criticizes China’s sea claims
SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary James Mattis sought Saturday to reassure jittery allies in the Pacific about President Donald Trump’s nationalist agenda while delivering a speech that cast North Korea as an “urgent military threat” and called out China for its military actions in the South China Sea.
Mattis, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting, said the Trump administration is encouraged by China’s “renewed commitment” to pressuring North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program but added that the United States will not accept China’s military buildup in the South China Sea.
“While competition between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, is bound to occur, conflict is not inevitable,” Mattis said. “Our two countries can and do cooperate for mutual benefit. We will work closely with China where we share common cause.”
Mattis’ comments come as the Trump administration seeks to stop North Korea from carrying out tests of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
The defense chiefs from Japan and France on Saturday welcomed U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific to manage the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and to maintain regional peace.
Speaking at the security meeting in Singapore, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada applauded America’s presence in the region and its tough stance on North Korea.
“The United States is a longtime Pacific power,” she said. “The ongoing presence of the United States in the Indo-Pacific continues to under-guard the rules-based order of the region. We welcome U.S. policy to strengthen its position.”
Sylvie Goulard, France’s armed forces minister, noted that North Korea is the only country to have conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century, including two last year alone.
“North Korea’s attitude is feeding tensions in a region where we have major economic interest, and we do not want to see an arms race here,” Goulard said.
Mattis’ appearance also marked the defense secretary’s first public remarks since Trump withdrew Thursday from the Paris climate agreement, the latest in a series of decisions that raised concerns among allies about whether the United States is withdrawing from the international stage.
Mattis did not mention the Paris agreement in his speech, but he was asked afterward by an Australian delegate about Trump’s resistance to several global alliances. The delegate, Michael Fullilove, cited Trump’s withdrawal from both the Paris agreement and the 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as the president’s repeated criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Mattis responded that “ob-
viously we have a new president in Washington, D.C.,” and “there will be fresh approaches taken.”
But, he added, the United States will remain an international leader, and Americans accept that “like it or not, we are part of the world.” That holds true, he said, despite deep frustration among some of them that their nation has been asked at times to shoulder an “inordinate burden” on the world stage.
Mattis mentioned American isolationism in the 20th century before World War II, and the lessons learned then. America was happy at one time “between our two oceans” but realized after the war that it’s “a crummy world if we all retreat inside our own borders,” he said.
Then he paraphrased an old quote often attributed to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
“To quote a British observer of us from some years ago: Bear with us. Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing,” Mattis said, drawing some laughter. “So we will still be there. And we will be with you.”
Mattis cited Trump’s trip to Brussels last month to meet with NATO leaders as well as the defense secretary himself going to Japan and South Korea within days of taking office as examples of how the United States is still involved on a world stage.
“We’re there, and I can give you absolute optimism on this issue,” Mattis said.
Mattis has sought to keep a low profile on his trip, declining to do customary interviews with reporters traveling with him on his plane. He has often advocated positions at odds with Trump’s more nationalist tendencies, calling for the United States to remain an active part of NATO, fulfill promises that the U.S. already has made to international partners, and prepare its military for how climate change could lead to new missions.
In his speech, Mattis acknowledged the difficult diplomacy involved in getting China to act against North Korea, a longtime trade partner that shares a border.
While Trump has said he is confident that Chinese President Xi Jinping will “try very hard” to pressure North Korea, a Chinese trade partner, Mattis sounded less certain that that would happen.
“Ultimately, we believe China will come to recognize North Korea as a strategic liability, not an asset,” Mattis said.
North Korea, Mattis said, is the major threat in the region and is at odds with the international community. China, on the other hand, is a growing power that has benefited from 70 years of peace in the Pacific but has disregarded the concerns of some other Pacific nations, the defense secretary said.
Mattis said China’s construction of bases and manmade islands in the South China Sea is problematic due to the “nature of its militarization, China’s blatant disregard for international law and its contempt for other nations’ interest [in] its effort to dismiss nonadversarial resolution of issues.”