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This Week in AsiaPolitics

Trump’s warning shot to Japan casts doubt on US defence guarantees in Asia

The US president’s recent remarks reveal that Washington ‘is no longer committed to defending Japan, South Korea or Taiwan’, an analyst says

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US President Donald Trump with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House last month. Photo: Sopa Images via Zuma Press Wire/dpa
Julian Ryall
US President Donald Trump has issued what analysts are calling an “advance warning” to Japan and South Korea, signalling that his administration is preparing to make swingeing security and trade demands of Washington’s closest allies in the Western Pacific.

Trump is expected to demand that both Tokyo and Seoul pay far more for the American troops stationed on their soil, threatening withdrawal if his terms are not met.

“The most important thing to note from his comments is that the United States is no longer committed to defending Japan, South Korea or Taiwan,” said Robert Dujarric, co-director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.

“If you are an official in the Japanese government and you still believe in the US security umbrella, then you are the sort of person who also believes [Trump] has been faithful in all his marriages,” he told This Week in Asia.

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Donald Trump declines to say if US would defend Taiwan against mainland China attack

Donald Trump declines to say if US would defend Taiwan against mainland China attack

For Tokyo and Seoul, the alarm bells were already ringing before Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office last Thursday, when he called the long-standing US-Japan security treaty unfair and accused South Korea of exploiting America economically. Now, those bells are deafening.

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