Republican US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, in a lengthy interview published on Saturday, described his foreign policy as an “America first” approach that would stop the US from being systematically “ripped off.”
The phone interview with the New York Times was the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy for the Republican frontrunner, who has spent his entire career in business.
During the conversation, he detailed his views on issues ranging from East Asian security to Syria, the Islamic State [IS] group and relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia.
Trump said he was not an isolationist, but described the US as a poor debtor nation that disproportionately funds international alliances, such as NATO and the UN.
Similarly lopsided relationships exist with allies such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, he said.
“We have been disrespected, mocked and ripped off for many many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher,” he said. “So America first, yes, we will not be ripped off anymore. We are going to be friendly with everybody, but we are not going to be taken advantage of by anybody.”
Asked if Japan should be allowed to have nuclear weapons to protect itself from North Korea, Trump suggested that would be an acceptable situation.
“Would I rather have North Korea have them with Japan sitting there having them also? You may very well be better off if that is the case,” he said.
Trump also said he would withdraw US troops from Japan and South Korea unless the two Asian nations significantly increased their contributions to Washington for the military presence.
“We cannot afford to be losing vast amounts of billions of [US] dollars on all of this,” he said.
He then slammed US President Barack Obama’s administration for seeking a political exit for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while simultaneously fighting IS as “madness and idiocy.”
“I am not saying Assad is a good man, because he is not, but our far greater problem is not Assad, it is [IS],” he said.
The real-estate developer said he would instead target the oil that provides a significant portion of the extremist group’s funding, cracking down on underground banking channels to cut off the flow of money.
Trump, who has repeatedly called for Middle Eastern allies to contribute boots on the ground in the fight against IS, said he would “probably” stop buying oil from nation such as Saudi Arabia unless they did so or reimbursed the US for its role in the fight.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate