Trump’s Asia strategy: send Vice-President Pence on whirlwind tour to try counter China’s dominance
- The deputy leader of the US will attend Apec and Asean summits, as well as visit key allies Australia and Japan
- US-China talks expected to restart on Friday in effort to cool tensions on trade and security
More than a dozen Pacific nations will convene in the capital of Papua New Guinea next week, where US Vice-President Mike Pence will lay out the next phase of the Trump administration’s ever evolving Asia strategy. His task is to convince the countries of Southeast Asia that the United States and its allies can offer them better options than capitulation to Chinese economic regional dominance.
With the midterm elections behind it and China-US talks restarting in an attempt to cool tensions between the two, the Trump administration has made a clear turn towards foreign policy.
President Donald Trump will visit Paris later this week and Argentina for the Group of 20 summit at the end of the month. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying to arrange a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, while Pence, who rolled out the new US approach to China last month, is headed to Asia for a week-long tour that will culminate in a major speech on the administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy at a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders on a ship off the coast of Port Moresby.
Pence’s whirlwind Asia tour – his third since taking office – will also take him to Japan, Singapore and Australia, representing the United States at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit and the East Asia Summit. These three conferences comprise the most important diplomatic gatherings of Asian leaders each year. Pence will also meet leaders of Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand along the way.