Foreign Affairs

Opinion/Analysis: Trump Should Copy Reagan and End Détente — with China

President Trump seems resigned to the expectation that China will be of no help in resolving the North Korea challenge. That he (and his predecessors) ever believed otherwise is the most salient evidence of the consensus by successive U.S. administrations that a soft touch toward the People’s Republic of China is in order because it is a growing, influential power. Soon, so the argument goes, the PRC will be the largest economy in the world and an able military power, capable of altering outcomes in ways detrimental to the United States. The U.S. must avoid confrontation lest this burgeoning power react in kind. Wrong. It’s the same thinking — yes, in a quite different context and time — that led earlier presidents to accept accommodation with the USSR during the Cold War. Ronald Reagan recognized that the policy benefited the Soviet Union and that Moscow was in no position to dictate terms once pressure was applied. President Trump should take this approach toward the PRC. Doing so would lead to a more cooperative China. There are several manifestations of America’s 21st-century détente policy toward Beijing beside Washington’s failure to hold Beijing to account over its rogue client regime in Pyongyang. These include the tepid U.S. response to China’s outlandish claims of sovereignty in the East and South China Seas, and Washington’s overall reluctance to acknowledge and counter Beijing’s growing military capabilities; complete silence as the PRC has violated at least the spirit if not the letter of its agreements to let Hong Kong develop with its own political system since the British handover in 1997; and the snubs, by presidents of both parties, to democratic Taiwan in ways large and small, to avoid irking China. The Trump administration has sent mixed signals on China policy so far. The president-elect’s call to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and near-mocking of the PRC when it stole a U.S. Navy drone during the post-election transition have been supplanted by the president’s apparent desperation to be liked by China’s president and by his declaration in a media interview that his very presence in office caused China to end the currency manipulation of which Candidate Trump had accused Beijing. In the aftermath of Pyongyang’s abuse and murder of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, the president tweeted plaintively that he appreciates that President Xi tried to help with North Korea — with no apparent indication that Xi did any such thing — but that the assistance isn’t working. The administration’s most persistent point of contention with Beijing is the U.S. trade deficit with China. Otherwise, it appears that the only consistency in the administration’s China policy is inconsistency. But a tough, even confrontational U.S. across the policy spectrum is needed. Beijing’s foreign-policy belligerence is meant to distract from its internal social and economic problems. This posture will moderate if it is met firmly by the U.S. and our Asian allies.

Agreed..   To read the rest of this insightful op/ed by Therese Shakeen, click on the text above.

Donald Trump Meets Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko After Sanctioning Russian-Backed Separatists

President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday as his administration imposed sanctions on Russian-backed separatists in the country. Trump said the two had “very, very good discussions,” calling Ukraine “a place that we’ve all been very much involved in.” Behind the scenes, the White House revealed that Trump and Poroshenko discussed support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions on two Russian officials and several separatists in Eastern Ukraine to support the Ukrainian amidst ongoing Russian-backed conflicts in the region. “This administration is committed to a diplomatic process that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty, and there should be no sanctions relief until Russia meets its obligations under the Minsk agreements,” Mnuchin said Tuesday. Poroshenko said it was a “great pleasure” to meet with Trump to discuss issues important to Ukraine and called the president a “supporter and strategic partner” of the country. “We’re really fighting for freedom and democracy,” he said.

We’re thrilled to hear Trump is meeting with Petro!  Excellent!!    🙂

Cuba deal rollback: Trump says he’s nixing Obama’s ‘one-sided’ pact

President Trump, speaking at a Miami theater associated with Cuban exiles, announced Friday he is nixing his predecessor’s “one-sided deal” with the Communist nation – moving to restrict individual travel to the island, crack down on the flow of U.S. cash to the Cuban military and demand key reforms in Havana. While stopping short of a full reversal, Trump said he would challenge Cuba to come back to the table with a new agreement. “Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump told a cheering crowd. Trump cast his announcement Friday as the fulfillment of a campaign pledge to turn back former President Barack Obama’s diplomatic outreach to the country. “I keep my promises,” Trump said. “And now that I am your president, America will expose the crimes of the Castro regime.” A cornerstone of the new policy is to ensure Americans traveling to Cuba only support private businesses and services, banning financial transactions with the dozens of enterprises run by the military-linked corporation GAESA. The Trump administration also says it will strictly enforce the 12 authorized categories allowing American citizens to travel to Cuba – banning one particular type of travel, known as individual “people-to-people” trips, seen as ripe for abuse by would-be tourists. Most U.S. travelers to Cuba will again be required to visit the island as part of organized tour groups run by American companies. Obama eliminated the tour requirement, allowing tens of thousands of Americans to book solo trips and spend their money with individual bed-and-breakfast owners, restaurants and taxi drivers. The rules also require a daylong schedule of activities designed to expose the travelers to ordinary Cubans. Trump focused his speech Friday on the crimes and misdeeds of the Castro government, saying his administration would not “hide from it.” He accused the regime of harboring “cop killers, hijackers and terrorists” while casting the policy changes as meant to encourage a free Cuba. “With God’s help, a free Cuba is what we will soon achieve,” Trump said. Critics of the United States’ decades-long freeze – and embargo – with Cuba say it failed to spur such changes, and had welcomed Obama’s outreach as a fresh approach. But many Cuban-American lawmakers recoiled. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban-American lawmaker who helped craft the new policy, spoke before the president in Miami on Friday and took a shot at Trump’s predecessor for his visit to Cuba last March. “A year and a half ago … an American president landed in Havana to outstretch his hand to a regime. Today, a new president lands in Miami to reach out his hand to the people of Cuba,” Rubio said.

Exactly!!  This is great news for the good people of Cuba who have been brutalized by the communist dictator Castro brothers for over half a century.  Outstanding!!   🙂

Arab News: Melania Trump ‘Classy and Conservative’ in Saudi Arabia

Americans buzzed over Melania Trump’s decision not to wear a headscarf in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, the Arab News newspaper headlined social media in the country talking about her “classy and conservative” fashion sense. According to the Mercury News, Saudi minister of foreign affairs Adel bin Ahmen Al-Jubier, told local media last week, “We welcome any style of clothing” worn by foreign dignitaries, despite the country’s strict dress code for women.

Keep this in mind, as you hear the dominantly liberal media talk about how Melania was disrespectful and so on for not wearing traditional Muslim headscarfs and such.  The local Arab media thought she looked great!  To see the official release in the Arab News, click on the text above.

Trump shakes hands with Saudi leader, doesn’t bow as Obama appeared to do

President Trump upon arriving in Saudi Arabia on Saturday did not bow to the Gulf leader as former President Barack Obama appeared to do — a move interpreted as American weakness. In 2009, Obama appeared to bow to then-Saudi leader King Abdullah at a G-20 summit in London. Videos show Obama bending at the waist toward the king. The White House at the time purportedly denied that the president had bowed, with a source saying Obama was taller than the king, so he had to lean. Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia marks the start to his nine-day, overseas tour that will also take him to Israel and Europe. The international trip is Trump’s first since taking office in January. Trump was greeted at the Saudi airport with an elaborate ceremony, punctuated by a military flyover and a handshake from Saudi King Salman. First lady Melania Trump wore a black pantsuit with a golden belt and did not cover her head for the arrival, consistent with custom for foreign dignitaries visiting Saudi Arabia. The 81-year-old King Salman greeted Trump at the airport. The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and Trump said it was “a great honor” to be there. “Two things need to happen,” Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Fox News on Saturday about Trump’s trip. “President Trump needs to shore up our alliance with the Sunnis who feel abandon, and that starts with Saudi Arabia. And in the short-term, he needs to create a coalition that will decimate and defeat ISIS.” Obama critics said the former president suggested several times in 2009, just after getting elected, that the United States owed the Arab world an apology. “There have been times when America has shown arrogance … even dismissiveness,” Obama said that year in France. Saudi Arabia offered Trump the elaborate welcome ahead of his two-day stay. Billboards featuring images of Trump and the king dotted the highways of Riyadh, emblazoned with the motto “Together we prevail.” Trump’s luxury hotel was bathed in red, white and blue lights and, at times, an image of the president’s face. Trump and the king met briefly in the airport terminal for a coffee ceremony before the president headed to his hotel before the day’s other meetings.

When Obama went on his “apology tour” in 2009, and bowed before the Saudi king , the Saudi’s saw that as weak…and they didn’t respect it, or him.  That set the tone for the Obama White House…which a year later would culminate in Obama foolishly, unilaterally pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq…which lead to the creation of ISIS/ISIL…which in turn has been a disaster.  By extreme contrast we now have a real man (not some limp-wristed, metro-sexual, ankle-grabbing, man-child like Obama) in the White House…and the Saudi’s are thrilled!!…which IS a good thing.  They are an instrumental ally in the fight against ISIS and other Islamic terrorists (many funded by Iran) in the region.  So, this visit by Trump was a HUGE step in the right direction for our relationship with the Saudi kingdom, and the multi-billion dollar agreement that Trump and the Saudi king signed will result in a LOT of U.S. jobs….which is always a plus  Excellent!!   🙂

Former US officials, senior North Korea reps reportedly prepare for talks

Senior North Korean officials are reportedly preparing to come to the U.S. to talk with former government officials, the first time a meeting has happened on U.S. soil since 2011. The officials representing the U.S. usually take part in Track 2 – or unofficial – talks with North Korea, The Washington Post reported Sunday. North Korean government officials were still preparing for the talks. The State Department has not yet approved visas for the Pyongyang officials, according to the paper. “The North Koreans have expressed an interest in engagement, but nothing’s been approved yet,” a person familiar with the planned talks told The Post. Should the talks go on, some might see it as an indication that North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un is willing to open up a dialogue with the Trump administration, despite Kim’s hopes to develop a nuclear weapon and recent missile tests. So-called “Track 1.5” talks have previously taken place in Kuala Lumpur, Geneva, Berlin and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, but haven’t taken place in the U.S. since July 2011 – before Kim took over power in North Korea. The newspaper reported that the meeting was being organized by Donald S. Zagoria of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He worked as a consultant on Asia during President Carter’s administration and organized previous talks. The talks are planned to be ran independently of the State Department. However, if the visas are approved, it would be seen as approval from the State Department. Choe Son Hui is expected to lead the Pyongyang delegation. Choe is director of the U.S. affairs department in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry. She previously participated in six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization and other Track 1.5 talks. Aside from recent rhetoric from the Trump administration on North Korea’s missile tests and Kim’s insistence his missile launches are for protection, upcoming U.S.-South Korea military drills could put a damper on talks before the visas are even considered.

An interesting development..  We’ll, of course, keep a close eye on this one.  For more on this story, click on the text above.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Rips Security Council’s ‘Breathtaking’ Anti-Israel Bias

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley issued a scathing criticism of the UN Security Council over their “anti-Israel” bias on Thursday after emerging from her first regular monthly meeting at the international body. “I have to admit; it was a bit strange,” Haley said of the council’s agenda. The former South Carolina governor noted that while it is the UN Security Council’s mission to discuss ways to maintain international peace and security, their meeting on the Middle East failed to address some of the region’s most pressing issues — namely, Hezbollah’s illegal buildup of rockets in Lebanon, the money and weapons the Iran regime is supplying to its terrorist entities throughout Latin America and the Middle East, ways to defeat the Islamic State, and how to hold Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad accountable for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. “Instead, the meeting focused on criticizing Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East,” Haley said. She added that while she is “new” to the United Nations, she is well-seasoned in her understanding of the UN Security Council’s generations-long bias against Israel. “I’m here to say the United States will not turn a blind eye to this anymore,” she said. “I’m here to underscore the ironclad support of the United States for Israel.” She called out the “breathtaking” double standards inherent in the Security Council. “Incredibly, the UN Department of Political Affairs has an entire department devoted to Palestinian affairs,” she said. “Imagine that. There is not a division devoted to illegal missile launches from North Korea. There is no division devoted to the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran.” Last December, the Obama administration fired a parting shot at Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by departing from longstanding U.S. policy of vetoing anti-Israel resolutions and instead abstained from voting on a Security Council resolution (UN Res 2334) calling for a halt to Israeli construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Former U.S. ambassador to the UN Samantha Power cast the abstaining vote on behalf of the Obama administration. An article in Foreign Policy describes Power’s final act of defiance against Trump as her refusal to take Haley’s phone call prior to the December vote. “Power’s advisors suspected Haley would try to persuade Power to veto the resolution, and she did not take the call,” Foreign Policy wrote. “We will never repeat the terrible mistake of Resolution 2334 and allow one-sided security council resolutions to condemn Israel,” Haley said. “Instead, we will push for action on the real threats we face in the Middle East.” In January, a group of Republican and Democratic senators signed onto bipartisan legislation that rejects UN Res 2334 and calls for it to be either “repealed or fundamentally altered so that it is no longer one-sided.” Because the United States is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a veto from them would have automatically prevented the resolution from passing. She also pointed out the rise of anti-Semitism in the world, which has seen an uptick over the last few years, and reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to seeing to a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict “that is negotiated directly between the two parties.” Despite Friday’s meeting, Haley said “there is good news” outside of the UN. “Israel’s place in the world is changing,” Haley said. “Israel is building up new diplomatic relationships; more and more countries recognize how much Israel contributes to the world.” She said they realize that Israel is “a beacon of stability in a troubled region.” She concluded her speech by saying, “it is the UN’s anti-Israel bias that is long overdue for change… The United States will not hesitate to speak out against these biases in defense of our friend and ally Israel.”

Excellent!!  Kudos to Ambassador Nikki Haley for calling the UN to the carpet like this.  It’s LONG overdue.  Outstanding!!    🙂