US overtures in North-East Asia: War could break out by chance

LAST week's revelation that the US Navy is easing up on its South China Sea patrols should not have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the Trump administration's modus operandi.

At its core is the preference for the transactional deal. In this case, Chinese President Xi Jinping is being offered a free hand in the South China Sea if he is willing to help out in the North Korean imbroglio.

So it is now clear that as the Trump administration grapples with the geopolitics of North-East Asia, it has decided that US Navy vessels would not sail within 12 nautical miles of the disputed islands in the South China Sea in any freedom-of-navigation operation. The decision seems to have been made when US President Donald Trump ordered an "armada" to sail to the Korean region.