At U.N., Trump sets U.S.-first goal

Trade, Iran draw president’s focus

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Donald Trump is poised to redouble his commitment to his “America First” agenda on the most global of stages this week.

The president and his advisers say he plans to stress his dedication to the primacy of U.S. interests while competing with Western allies for an advantage on trade and shining a spotlight on the threat that Iran poses to the Middle East and beyond.

A year after Trump made his U.N. debut, standing at the rostrum of the General Assembly and deriding North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man,” the push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula is a work in progress, although fears of war have given way to hopes for rapprochement.

Some world leaders, even those representing America’s closest friends, remain wary of Trump. In the 12 months since his last visit to the U.N., the president has jolted the global status quo by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and starting trade conflicts with China and the West.

Long critical of the United Nations, Trump delivered a warning shot ahead of his arrival by declaring that the world body had “not lived up to” its potential.

“It’s always been surprising to me that more things aren’t resolved,” Trump said in a weekend video message, “because you have all of these countries getting together in one location, but it doesn’t seem to get there. I think it will.”

If there is a throughline to the still-evolving Trump doctrine on foreign policy, it is that the president will not subordinate American interests on the world stage, whether for economic, military or political gain.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in a preview of Trump’s visit that the president’s focus “will be very much on the United States,” its role and the relations it wants to build.

In his four-day visit to New York, Trump will deliver major speeches and meet with representatives of a world order that he has so often upended in the past year. As it was a year ago, North Korea’s nuclear threat will hover over the gathering, though its shadow may appear somewhat less ominous.

The nuclear threat was sure to be on the agenda at Trump’s first meeting, a dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Manhattan on Sunday night.

This afternoon, Trump plans to sit down with South Korean President Moon Jaein, who arrives bearing a personal message to Trump from North Korea’s Kim after their inter-Korean talks last week. Trump and Moon are expected to sign a new version of the U.S.-South Korean trade agreement, one of Trump’s first successes in his effort to renegotiate trade deals on more favorable terms for the U.S.

Even so, some U.S. officials worry that South Korea’s eagerness to restore relations with the North could reduce sanctions pressure on Kim’s government, hampering efforts to negotiate a nuclear accord.

“We have our eyes wide open,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There is a long ways to go to get Chairman Kim to live up to the commitment that he made to President Trump and, indeed, to the demands of the world in the U.N. Security Council resolutions to get him to fully denuclearize.”

MEETING ON IRAN

Trump’s address to the General Assembly is set for Tuesday, and on Wednesday he will for the first time chair the Security Council, with a stated topic of nonproliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Trump tweeted Friday that he would concentrate on Iran, although administration officials say the session will be a broader discussion of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Under U.N. rules, Iran, which isn’t currently a member of the Security Council, can attend a meeting if it’s going to be the main subject of discussion. Trump’s characterization raises the prospect of an encounter between Trump and Rouhani.

Before Rouhani left Iran on Sunday for the General Assembly meetings, debate had raged in his country about whether he should attend the U.N. gathering. Hard-line conservatives called for a boycott of the meeting in response to the “insults” of a U.S. administration determined to weaken the Islamic Republic.

On the possibility of a Trump-Rouhani meeting, Haley said the president isn’t opposed to one if he’s asked, but that “Rouhani hasn’t done anything to warrant a meeting.”

In meetings with European leaders as well as during the Security Council session, Trump plans to try to make the case that global companies are cutting ties with Iran ahead of the reimposition in five weeks of tough sanctions against Tehran. The penalties are a result of Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Aides say the president will also use the session to discuss North Korea and other proliferation issues.

Trump is also expected to deliver another warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad that the use of chemical weapons against civilians in the major rebel stronghold of Idlib would have serious repercussions. Britain and France are actively planning a military response should Assad use chemical weapons again, according to U.S. officials.

TRADE TALKS

The European Union’s trade chief is heading to New York this week to continue negotiations with the U.S. and Japan, as the three parties seek a way to end what they see as China’s unfair commercial policies and to dial down global tensions.

Their plan is to create an agreement to try to force China to end “nonmarket-oriented policies” that lead to overcapacity, create unfair competitive conditions and hinder technological development.

The EU is engaged in a delicate balancing act, working with the U.S. to address common complaints while also trying to persuade Trump to roll back unilateral tariffs he imposed on the 28-country bloc this year. The bloc is also trying to keep him from instating other, more punitive measures. Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade negotiator, will also seek to shore up the World Trade Organization in response to the U.S.’ moves away from a multilateral trade system.

Malmstrom will meet with

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko on Tuesday while the U.N. General Assembly is in session.

The stakes are high for the EU and Japan, which fear the Trump administration could trigger national security tariffs on automobiles and auto parts if they refuse to play ball. In May, the U.S. Commerce Department launched an investigation to determine whether foreign imports of cars, SUVs, vans, light trucks, and auto parts are having a detrimental effect on U.S. national security.

Though U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said his agency would hold off on any new auto tariffs while the EU and the U.S. negotiate a new trade pact, major car exporters fear Trump could still forge ahead with duties if he believes progress is lacking.