Phar Kim Beng

Asian Angle | How Xi and Abe will interpret Trump’s North Korea call with Duterte

The US president’s leaked chat with Philippine leader sends different messages to China and Japan – and not only about the location of US nuclear submarines

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US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump said ‘after listening for 10 minutes [to Xi], I realised it’s not so easy’ for Beijing to influence North Korea. Photo: Xinhua

Phar Kim Beng

Published: 10:00am, 28 May 2017Updated: 10:00am, 28 May 2017

It is not often one gets to see how the United States conducts its diplomacy from the White House, especially over the phone. Yet, the full transcripts of President Donald Trump’s conversation with the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte leaked to The Washington Post gave the world a unique glimpse.

More importantly, it created a ruckus in the international security community, as Trump, according to Business Insider, did the unthinkable: he revealed the locations of a number of US nuclear submarines. But the conversation was also insightful in other ways.

Transcripts show US President Donald Trump asking for advice from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte about how to get China to influence North Korea. Photo: AP

First, Trump appears to be loose with the facts. Without any empirical backing, he boasted that the nuclear and conventional military abilities of the US were “20 times bigger” than North Korea.

Second, by speaking candidly about the location of the two nuclear subs, Trump appears oblivious to security protocol yet again, even though he came to the White House accusing Hillary Clinton of inept handling of confidential emails.

Third, it was odd to read that the world’s most powerful man was seeking the advice of the Philippines about China, specifically about how well it could control or contain North Korea.

One only seeks the advice of another country when it is clear that it is in the know. But Manila has had little or no interaction with China on the matter.