Donald Trump’s policy advisors have assured officials in Japan and South Korea that if the former President is re-elected he will support effort to deepen three-way ties between these three nations. The move to strengthen military, diplomatic and economic cooperation was started by the Biden administration. The move is seen as a bid to reduce tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. The move comes just days after the commerce ministers of the three nations met to enhance cooperation in the field of emerging technologies.
The conversations were described to Reuters by Republicans and officials from each of the Asian countries, several of whom were directly involved. The previously unreported push is part of an effort by Trump’s allies to convince Washington’s closest friends in Asia that his smash-mouth approach to traditional alliances ends at the shores of the Indo-Pacific. There, the U.S. faces ramped-up tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea, a new Chinese partnership with Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s courtship of North Korea.
“I reassured them that the alliance will be strong, that Trump recognizes we have to work closely with our allies to defend their interests,” said Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff in Trump’s National Security Council, who traveled to Japan and met officials there including national security adviser Takeo Akiba this month.These conversations carry extra weight after Biden’s disastrous debate performance on Thursday, which may push undecided voters toward Trump and has spurred calls for him to step aside in the 2024 race.
Trump allies have floated other foreign policy plans if he wins in November, including a Ukraine peace plan and one to restructure NATO funding. The reassurances to Japan and South Korea go further because they include direct talks with foreign officials. In May, former Trump foreign policy officials met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Trump campaign has not confirmed whether he would accept these proposals.
“No one has the authority to speak to a foreign government and make promises on behalf of President Donald Trump,” said Chris LaCivita, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, when asked about the assurances. The policy section of the Trump campaign’s website does not address the topic.
Fleitz said he was not speaking for Trump and instead offering an assessment based on his experience with the candidate. He said the U.S., Japan and South Korea would likely work together to counter China and North Korea under another Trump term.
Dozens of meetings have been taken or scheduled at the highest levels of the Japanese and South Korean governments with right-wing think tanks, such as America First Policy Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute, known to be planning policy Trump could deploy in 2025, sources said.
One Asian official briefed on the recent regional meetings with Trump allies said their government was taking the meetings seriously and considered them a plausible representation of where Trump may stand.
Trump Second Term Plans
The conversations show the serious, early effort by Trump allies to sketch policy priorities for a second Trump presidency months before the 2024 U.S. election, in which Trump is leading in battleground states that could decide the race.
Trump’s 2016 election win took countries by surprise and left them scrambling to understand the new president’s views as he hastily assembled White House advisers.
The consortium of conservative think tanks known as “Project 2025” making detailed plans for a second Trump presidency describe South Korea and Japan in their playbook as “critical allies” in the military, economy, diplomacy and technology.
But the playbook also calls for pushing South Korea “to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea,” reflecting Trump’s concern about taking on too much financial responsibility for other countries’ security. Project 2025 has said it does not speak for the Trump campaign.
Welcome Signal
In Seoul and Tokyo, where officials are weighing a possible Trump return to office, Republican messages of solidarity have been received as a welcome signal that Trump’s Asia policy may vary from the hard-nosed approach that rankled allies from Ottawa to Brussels.
As opinion polls show Biden and Trump are in a close race, Yoon and Kishida face withering public opinion at home. This does raise questions about whether the spirit of Camp David will be dented if there is leadership change in any of the three partner nations. South Koreans have stated that it is natural for the three nations to work together adding that there was bi-partisan support in the U.S. to strengthen the relationship even during the previous regime helmed by Trump
