Report warns of Asia arms race if Trump withdraws US forces

None of this is comforting.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister is the first foreign official that is going to meet the US President, Donald Trump. He has lots of questions to answer, and quickly.

Despite Donald Trump’s panicked tweets over the past 24 hours, two things have become clear since last week’s election: 1.

Japan, whose own military is restricted by a pacifist constitution drafted by the USA after World War II, relies heavily on America’s troops and nuclear weapons for deterrence against growing threats from North Korea and an increasingly powerful China.

Kawai said Abe considered the USA relationship Japan’s most important and that it was essential that it was built on trust.

In March, The New York Times reported that Trump said he would be open to Japan and South Korea developing nuclear weapons – a reversal of decades of us efforts to restrict the spread of nuclear arms. Just $5 a month. Will a Trump Administration prompt Japan to develop serious plans or otherwise move forward to nuclear weapons? The president-elect has also stirred unease in Tokyo by threatening to pull USA troops out of the country unless it pays more for their upkeep, and has suggested Japan might have to develop its own nuclear weapons.

Will President Trump force Japan to pay more toward the upkeep of USA forces?

Ironically, certain people responsible for the current difficulties posed by Chinese assertiveness in the South and East China Seas as well as North Korea’s seemingly inexorable march toward fully capable missiles and nuclear weapons were poised to come back as officials in a Hillary Clinton Administration. While trade will be a central issue of their talks, Abe will also seek to clarify Trump’s position on a number of issues affecting Japan. At the most basic level, the commitment of Asia’s major players to non-proliferation is a shared goal-even if countries disagree on the tactics sometimes.

After the surprise result, the Japanese Foreign Ministry has been scrambling to make amends with Mr. Trump, who will soon be in charge of Tokyo’s most important ally and security patron. During the campaign, Trump called the pending trade agreement “a continuing rape of our country”.

For a more in-depth analysis of what this would mean for Asia, and how Mr Trump’s “America first” movement could alienate the region, read Consequences of TPP demise go beyond trade, by ST’s United States bureau chief Jeremy Au Yong, and A message from Asia-Pacific to President-elect Trump, by the former editor-in-chief of Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, Mr Yoichi Funabashi.

Some of Trump’s rhetoric suggests an image of Japan forged in the 1980s, when Tokyo was seen by many in the United States as a threat to jobs and a free-rider on defense. “The strong Japan-U.S. alliance is indispensable to supporting peace and stability in the region”.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, an army general who seized power three years ago, appears to have been the first leader to speak to Mr Trump after the election, ahead of closer allies like the leaders of Britain and Germany.

Mr Najib said he and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would witness the signing. Trump elicited wild cheers on the campaign trail by pledging to “drain the swamp” in Washington but the president-elects transition team is populated largely with creatures of the capital, including former federal bureaucrats, think-tank academics, corporate lawyers and special interests lobbyists. This is a risky attitude. Especially with allies like Japan, the United States needs to be predictable.

While world leaders sometimes hold loosely planned bilateral meetings at regional summits, it is unusual for foreign leaders to hold high-level diplomatic talks in the United States without detailed planning.