{"id":33987,"date":"2018-10-30T15:20:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33987"},"modified":"2018-10-30T15:20:21","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:50:21","slug":"an-itinerary-in-search-of-a-strategy-on-trumps-east-asia-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/an-itinerary-in-search-of-a-strategy-on-trumps-east-asia-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"An itinerary in search of a strategy: on Trump\u2019s East Asia tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/lead\/an-itinerary-in-search-of-a-strategy\/article20461120.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An itinerary in search of a strategy: on Trump\u2019s East Asia tour<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donald Trump\u2019s statements and Twitter posts through his 12-day visit, five-nation tour of Asia, decodes a new American strategy towards the region that can be challenging.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u2018Terrific\u2019 China<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His main aim surrounds around resistance to China\u2019s unrestrained ambitions in \u2018freedom of navigation\u2019 and censure of \u2018predatory\u2019 economic practices used along with America\u2019s commitment to democracy, human rights, and free trade.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Trump\u2019s desire to be friends with the ruler of North Korea, the emerging picture appears confusing, if not bizarre.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Trump overview of the \u201cterrific\u201d tour and how he enjoyed the unprecedented reception in Beijing was baffling.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cheery on the cake was the business deals \u2014 he put the figure at $300 billion and hoped that it would exceed $1 trillion in the coming months, though the actual numbers remain unclear.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The security partnerships with these Asian partners have also been enhanced.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Words of Trump<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cThose days are over,\u201d he declared. He was there \u201cto offer a renewed partnership with America,\u201d the basis of which would be \u201cbilateral trade agreements with any Indo-Pacific nation that wants to be our partner and that will abide by the principles of fair and reciprocal trade&#8230; I call it the Indo-Pacific dream.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What does he mean?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The U.S. has trade deficits with all the five countries that Mr. Trump visited, putting China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam in the same basket on this count.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America offers these countries technology, capital and access to its market.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America offers a security guarantee and a predictable world order based on multilateral trade and security pacts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rise of China has added additional optimism for neighbouring countries. The friction between China and its neighbours heightened as Beijing\u2019s ambitions grew after the 2008 financial crisis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, and South Korea started to gravitate more towards the U.S., which was itself alarmed by the assertiveness of China.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Obama administration announced the <\/span><b>Pivot to Asia strategy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in response.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barack Obama wanted to open the Asian markets for American companies, but there was a broader blue print issue but Mr. Trump has knocked it down to a one-point agenda: <\/span><b>buy our goods and services<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His statement that countries in the \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">region [should] be strong, independent, and prosperous, in control of their own destinies, and satellites to no one,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a call for ending <\/span><b>multilateralism<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which looked as Amercian disinterest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Trump also told his Asian hosts that they were free to pursue their interests solo, as he would pursue his, hinting that America could cut a deal with China on its own, regardless of its potential impact on other countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China is the biggest trading partner of South Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Speaking after Mr. Trump at APEC, Mr. Xi presented a case for multilateralism and open trade. China is also willing to offer technology, capital and market access, on its terms under the Belt and Road Initiative.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Security concerns<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Trump asked them all to join hands with the U.S. in stopping North Korea\u2019s nuclear adventurism and collaterally asked Japan, Vietnam and South Korea to buy \u201chis weapons\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cIndo-Pacific dream\u201d may not appear to be much of a dream for most countries in the region as conflicts in Asia, in the west and the east, could appear to be good opportunities for profit from the realtor\u2019s perspective.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An itinerary in search of a strategy: on Trump\u2019s East Asia tour Context Donald Trump\u2019s statements and Twitter posts through his 12-day visit, five-nation tour of Asia, decodes a new American strategy towards the region that can be challenging. \u2018Terrific\u2019 China His main aim surrounds around resistance to China\u2019s unrestrained ambitions in \u2018freedom of navigation\u2019&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/an-itinerary-in-search-of-a-strategy-on-trumps-east-asia-tour\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">An itinerary in search of a strategy: on Trump\u2019s East Asia tour<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704920747},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}