Trump’s pragmatic diplomacy

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that during his presidential campaign, he never said he might allow Korea and Japan to acquire nuclear weapons. Many diplomats say that he accepted the reality that cannot change the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) that the U.S. has kept for nearly 50 years. He took a step back relating to the NATO, which he said is useless, by saying that he would deliver his commitment to the NATO and the transatlantic alliance. Only a week ago, President Obama said Trump is not prepared and cannot be trusted to have his finger on the nuclear button. But now, the president said, “Trump is pragmatic.”

President-elect Trump is a businessman in nature so that he does not put values on political belief or changing words. It is a welcome change that he has decided to adjust his pledges that seemed tough and risky. The problem is that he is unpredictable. Nobody knows when the changes will change again. His basic “America-first” doctrine will not change as he said throughout the campaign that the U.S. cannot be the world’s police at a time when it has 21 trillion dollars in deficits.

Attendees at a forum on the U.S. foreign policy of the new administration, jointly organized by the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University and Korea’s Sejong Institute on Tuesday, said in unison, “South Korea should not just worry about what will happen. Instead, it should let the U.S. know that it spends tremendous defense expenses and pays its share for the U.S. forces, and the U.S. also has gains from the KORUS FTA.” This is right. We should walk the talk, instead of worrying about the future.

Japan is moving. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a foreign policy advisor to the U.S. to explain the strategic importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Abe will meet the U.S. president-elect in New York for the first time as a country’s leader on Thursday. It is deplorable that we cannot do anything due to the ongoing political scandal crippling state affairs. Politicians should pull wisdom to help form a team at least for foreign relations and let it meet with the U.S. president-elect.