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South Korea
ChinaDiplomacy
Ankit Panda
Ankit Panda

Opinion | US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper seeks to balance relations on visit to Asia-Pacific

  • Official has work to do to keep regional allies happy against Donald Trump’s ‘myopic’ foreign policy
  • Esper’s next stop is at Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus in Bangkok

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US Defence Secretary Mark Esper is on a tour of the Asia-Pacific region. Photo: Reuters
Ankit Panda
US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper’s second trip to Asia comes at a particularly turbulent time, even by the standards of the Trump era. Alliance burden-sharing doldrums, an increasingly recalcitrant North Korea, and the pending expiration of a South Korea-Japan intelligence-sharing agreement loom large over his regional tour.
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The cost-sharing issue in particular has frothed up to ridiculous proportions, comprising what effectively amounts to US strategic malpractice. The Trump administration is making egregious and extortionary demands of South Korea and Japan – each a significant force multiplier for American influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ahead of Esper’s trip, the US Department of Defence published an article emphasising the role of its regional partners.

“America’s network of alliances is its greatest combat advantage, and nowhere is that more important than in the Indo-Pacific region, which Defence Secretary Dr Mark T. Esper has called America’s ’priority theatre’,” the article began.

But looking at the defence secretary’s actions, it’s not clear that the United States fully recognises exactly what it is squandering with President Donald Trump’s myopic and transactional focus on extracting higher payments from treaty allies in particular.

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The prospects of a US-North Korea deal appear more futile than ever in the final weeks of 2019. Photo: AP
The prospects of a US-North Korea deal appear more futile than ever in the final weeks of 2019. Photo: AP

In Seoul, Esper had no choice but to debase himself and speak for his president. Noting that South Korea was a “wealthy country”, he made the argument Seoul “could and should” pay more. That in itself is not controversial, but the current demand – that South Korea increase its contribution for host nation support more than fourfold – is not one made with Seoul’s dignity in mind.

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