Asia-Pacific tops US foreign policy priorities

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump is facing major foreign policy challenges from Venezuela to Iran this week. Yet, it is the Asia-Pacific that looms potentially largest for him after recent setbacks in trade talks with China, and the impasse in nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, underscoring the need for a more coordinated US strategy towards the region.

In the past week, the Washington-Beijing negotiations hit the headlines after Mr Trump increased tariffs on some US$200 billion in Chinese goods from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, after first imposing measures last July. Beijing has punched back by taxing US$110 billion of US products.

The apparent setback in the talks, which could yet herald a full-blown trade war between the world's two largest economies, came at the same time that the latest round of US-China negotiations in Washington stalled. While both sides had wanted to achieve a deal at or before next …