Is Trump about to turn America’s back on Asia?
The new US president stands poised to unleash policies with historic ramifications across the continent
Using the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration, Donald Trump, amid pomp and protest, was sworn in on January 20 as the 45th president of the United States of America.
More than 150 years ago, with civil war looming, Lincoln had urged his countrymen to renew the common ties that bound them.
“We are not enemies, but friends … we are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies but fellow countrymen and brethren,” he vainly noted.
Lincoln had directed his words to a domestic audience. Trump would be wise to apply Lincoln’s sentiments to his international allies and partners, notably in Asia. For the better part of 70 years, the US has, by and large, been a force for good in Asia, deploying its superiority of strength and resolve in the service of secure sea lanes, open markets and stable politics.
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Non-reciprocal market access for Asia’s light manufacturing exports was at the core of this strategy; the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet was tasked with protecting the sea lanes that delivered the energy resources to fire up this manufacturing-driven engine of Asian prosperity.
