Scoring Trump's Big Adventure in the Indo-Pacific
In Tokyo, Seoul, Da Nang, and Manila, President Trump reiterated that the network of American alliances remains in place, and that he is not stepping away from them.
Similarly, while the president talked about expecting help from China on North Korea, Beijing appeared to adhere to its standard formulation of calling for a peaceful resolution. If the PRC did not forge a “new type of great power relations,” the United States did not get appreciable change on North Korea.
What is most likely to emerge from this first presidential visit to Asia, then, is some reassurance for the region that tectonic upheavals in the American approach are unlikely. The worst possibilities, those of a United States pursuing both strategic and economic isolationist policies, were not affirmed. Nonetheless, there is a very different leadership approach and perspective now in place, one that demands visible reciprocity and will engage in much more obvious transactional relations.
Dean Cheng is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.
Image: U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
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