Mattis repairs Trump’s Asian wreckage

US Secretary of Defence James Mattis delivered a welcome if quite different message than expected when he visited South Korea and Japan this week. He spoke strongly of US commitment to the security of the region. More importantly, he reaffirmed the importance of America’s long-standing relations with these two Asian allies. 
Prior to the trip, President Donald Trump had churned up anxieties by criticising the two nations for failing to honour commitments made to treaties they hold with the US and then, startlingly, suggesting they develop their own nuclear arsenals.
In sharp contrast Mattis, a retired Marine general, arrived with praise for both nations for fulfilling their pledges to share the security burden with the US. America, he assured them, is in the region to stay.
Mattis, thank goodness, set the right tone. National leaders in this part of the world are getting increasingly fed up with Trump’s ill-considered pronouncements. He routinely speaks nonsense on the whole range of subjects, but foreign policy and international security are the last subjects he should be so reckless about. The security challenges facing Asia are dire, led by North Korea’s improved ability to launch ballistic missiles great distances and Beijing’s bullying in the South China Sea. Trump’s personality quirks are not sending the right messages. 
Security on the Korean Peninsula is now more precarious than ever because the North has expanded its nuclear programme to such a dangerous extent, defying UN sanctions and ignoring international condemnation. Since 2004 North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests. Its ambition is to join the league of atomic powers in order to gain leverage in itsnegotiations with other countries. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said he would like to meet Trump face to face to work out a long-delayed “peace treaty”. He is well aware that his country’s intransigence on this matter can only bring further sanctions, and yet he appears to have no intention of changing course. Since 2014 the international community has included human-rights abuses among its grievances with Pyongyang and is applying pressure on this issue too. The North has for decades got away with an atrocious record on rights, only because the world has focused only on its nuclear programme. Now, the UN is closely monitoring the rights situation there.
After assuring South Korea that the US has its back, Mattis said exactly what needed to be said in Japan to restore trust in Washington. Since its defeat in World War II, Japan has relied on America’s protection against subsequent threats, first from the Soviet Union and lately from China. It was, after all, a condition of US post-war aid that Japan must abandon military capability beyond its own shores. Trump’s disgraceful criticism of Japan for lacking commitment to that defence deal merely shows, once again, his disdain for facts. Japan has honoured its agreements with the US more than any other ally in the region. 
It is fortunate that Mattis has settled nerves ahead of Trump’s next meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under whose leadership Japan is expanded its security efforts beyond the requirements of its treaty with the US. These efforts in part involve strengthening stability in the region through security arrangements with Southeast Asian nations. Trump must realise that America’s security also depends on the US maintaining strong alliances in Asia. To a large extent, the US owes its superpower status to the strategy centred here. To revive isolationist tendencies and jeopardise relations with Asia is to risk losing America’s global relevance.