President Donald Trump’s trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea was long on ceremony but not short on substance, which is promising regarding international relationships.
The promising cooperative agreements reached are especially noteworthy given the tone of nationalism and confrontation so prominent in this administration.
Visiting Malaysia first, before moving on to the other countries, definitely reflects the steadily growing economic importance of Southeast Asia. That includes manufacturing powerhouse Vietnam. Japan and South Korea are more customary presidential stops.
In Kuala Lumpur, Trump signed several regional agreements, including a peace accord between Cambodia and Thailand.
The visit to Malaysia involved elaborate ceremonies, including beautiful, symmetrical traditional dance and military displays.
Gifts are usually prominent in Donald Trump’s travels. Japan gave the president a golf club used by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who became a good friend, along with 250 cherry blossom trees to replace some of those donated by that nation early in the 20th century.
South Korea presented a replica gold crown from an ancient dynasty. A banquet featured beef patties with ketchup, a favorite dish of the president.
Trump’s stop in Korea included a meeting with President Xi Jinping of China. That discussion resulted in important agreements on rare earths and agriculture, along with limiting drug trafficking.
In a similar Asia trip in 2009, President Barack Obama described himself as the “first Pacific president” of the United States, referring to his birth in Hawaii and education in Indonesia. That statement may be described as a mild exaggeration.
U.S. involvement in Asia dates back much further in our history.
President Millard Fillmore opened Japan to the outside world in 1854. Commodore Matthew Perry delivered a letter of friendship from Fillmore, accompanied by a very heavily armed naval flotilla.
Fillmore, not a great president, can be labeled “first” in Pacific terms.
President Theodore Roosevelt has the greatest claim to be our first Pacific commander-in-chief. He won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for ending the brutal Russo-Japanese War, a great accomplishment.
At the time, Roosevelt declared that as the 20th century unfolded, Asia would become in some respects more important than Europe for the United States. In this realm, as in others, history has vindicated him.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower received an “education” in the Philippines in useful ways as aide to imperious General Douglas MacArthur. His Farewell Address warned of the growing “military-industrial complex” and mentioned “four major wars” of “great powers” in the 20th century, three involving the U.S.
He did not name them, but almost certainly meant the two world wars, the Korean War and the Russo-Japanese War. Three involved Asia.
The 21st century is more peaceful — so far — permitting government leaders to focus more on economic concerns and less on armed conflict.
Both China and Japan have enormous economies that remain smaller than the U.S., and are fairly predictable. Scare stories about China distort a reality in which all three economies are increasingly integrated and mutually dependent.
The meeting of Presidents Trump and Xi in South Korea embodies the growing power and international influence of that nation. President Harry Truman in 1950 supported the UN defense of South Korea. South Korea returned the favor by providing enormously effective troops to support the U.S. and South Vietnam in the Vietnam War.
Military cooperation remains close.
Trump’s trip fortunately included specific, positive agreements. That dimension is especially important in this confrontational, nationalistic time.
Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War- American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (NYU Press and Macmillan).
Contact acyr@carthage.edu
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