US national security strategy: Washington’s expectations for Asian allies?
The 33-page document, recently released by the White House, is a reminder that President Donald Trump’s approach to the rest of the world is guided, above all, by the America First doctrine.
The first national security strategy since Trump returned to the White House in January states: The United States calls on its partners in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere in Asia to take responsibility for their own regions and to be more proactive in contributing to “our collective defense.”
Given that NATO members have pledged to meet Trump’s call to increase defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035, the document will press them to meet that goal.
In a section of the strategy that focuses on Asia, it says: “Given Trump’s insistence on increasing the share of Japan and South Korea in military spending, we must call on these countries to increase their defense spending.”
The document says that key U.S. Asian allies should strengthen capabilities to “deter adversaries and protect the First Island Chain.” This refers to the chain of islands that stretches from the Japanese archipelago through Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal waters.
Elsewhere, the document says that while the United States will build a military capable of deterring aggression anywhere along the strategic defense line, American forces “cannot and must not do so alone.”
About Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province that should be annexed by force if necessary, the Trump administration has reiterated Washington’s longstanding position that it “does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”