Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Trump hugs ally Japan after
easing U.S.-China tensions
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— President Donald Trump,
fresh off patching up ties
with China, reassured Japan’s
leader Friday that the U.S.
will defend its close ally.
Together, the pronounce-
ments illustrated a shift
toward a more mainstream
Trump stance on U.S. policy
toward Asia.
Welcoming
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe to the
White House with a hug,
Trump said he wants to bring
the post-World War II alliance
with Japan “even closer.”
While such calls are ritual
after these types of meetings,
from Trump they’re sure to
calm anxieties that he has
stoked by demanding that
America’s partners pay more
for their own defense.
Abe, a nationalist adept
at forging relationships
with self-styled strongmen
overseas, was the only world
leader to meet the Republican
before his inauguration. He is
now the second to do so since
Trump took office. Flattering
the billionaire businessman,
Abe said he would welcome
the United States becoming
“even greater.”
He also invited Trump to
visit Japan this year. Trump
accepted, according to a joint
statement.
Other leaders of America’s
closest neighbors and allies,
such as Mexico, Britain and
Australia, have been singed
by their encounters or conver-
sations with Trump.
But the optics Friday were
positive. After a working
lunch on economic issues, the
two leaders boarded Air Force
One with their wives for a trip
to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
in Florida. They dined with
New England Patriots owner
Robert Kraft at the club
Friday night. Trump and Abe
are scheduled to play golf
Saturday.
Their Oval Office meeting
came hours after Trump
reaffirmed
Washington’s
long-standing “one China”
policy in a call with Chinese
President Xi Jinping. That
“I believe that
will all work out
very well for
everybody.”
— Donald Trump
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
President Donald Trump looks toward Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe at the conclusion of a joint new
conference in the East Room of the White House, in
Washington, Friday.
statement will similarly ease
anxieties in East Asia after
Beijing was angered and
other capitals were rattled
by earlier suggestions that he
might use Taiwan as leverage
in trade, security and other
negotiations.
Although Japan is a
historic rival of China, Trump
said that his long and “warm”
conversation with Xi was
good for Tokyo, too.
“I believe that will all work
out very well for everybody,
China, Japan, the United
States and everybody in the
region,” Trump said at a joint
news conference with Abe.
Stepping carefully into
Japan’s longstanding terri-
torial dispute with China
over uninhabited islands in
the East China Sea, Trump
said the U.S. is committed to
the security of Japan and all
areas under its administrative
control. The implication was
that the U.S.-Japan defense
treaty covers the disputed
islands, which Japan which
calls the Senkaku, but China
calls the Diaoyu.
Beijing opposes such
statements, but Trump’s
wording allowed for some
diplomatic wiggle room. The
joint statement released later
was more explicit, however,
in spelling out the U.S.
commitment.
Abe has championed a
more active role for Japan’s
military. He has eased
constraints imposed by the
nation’s pacifist post-war
constitution and allowed
forces to defend allies, even
if Japan itself is not under
attack.
As a candidate, Trump
urged even greater self-re-
liance, at one point even
raising the notion of Japan
and South Korea developing
their own nuclear weapons as
a deterrent to North Korea.
He made no similar
remark Friday, and according
to Japanese officials, did
not raise the issue of cost-
sharing for defense. Instead
he thanked Japan for hosting
nearly 50,000 American
troops, which also serve as
a counterweight to China’s
increased regional influence.
He said freedom of naviga-
tion and dealing with North
Korea’s missile and nuclear
threats are a “very high
priority.”
There was less agreement
on economics.
One of Trump’s first
actions as president was
to withdraw the U.S. from
a 12-nation, trans-Pacific
trade agreement that was
negotiated by the Obama
administration and strongly
supported by Tokyo.
Diverting from Trump’s
stance that the Trans-Pa-
cific Partnership is bad for
America, Abe stressed the
importance of a “free and
fair common set of rules” for
trade among the world’s most
dynamic economies.
“That was the purpose of
TPP. That importance has not
changed,” Abe said through
an interpreter, though both
leaders held out the possi-
bility of a future bilateral,
U.S.-Japanese deal.
Trump has also criticized
Toyota Motor Corp. for
planning to build an assembly
plant in Mexico and has
complained Japanese don’t
buy enough U.S.-made cars
— though on Friday, Japa-
nese government spokesman
Norio Maruyama said Trump
expressed appreciation to Abe
for Japanese investment in
the U.S. and looked forward
to it expanding.
Abe told U.S. business
leaders Friday that “a
whopping majority” of the
Japanese cars running on
American roads are manufac-
tured in the U.S. by American
workers. That includes 70
percent of Toyotas. Abe said
Japanese business supports
some 840,000 jobs in the
United States.
That may not be enough
for Trump, who is highly
sensitive to U.S. trade deficits.
Japan logged the second-
largest surplus with the U.S.
last year, behind only China,
and there had been some
expectation Abe would use
the visit to propose new
Japanese investments to help
Trump spur American job
growth. There was no such
announcement Friday — only
agreement to launch a high-
level dialogue on economic
cooperation.
White House regroups after stinging legal defeat
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— Seeking to regroup after
a stinging legal defeat,
President Donald Trump
said Friday he is considering
signing a “brand new order”
after his refugee and immi-
gration travel ban was halted
in court.
Trump, speaking to
reporters on Air Force One
as he flew to Florida for the
weekend, said he expected
his administration to win
the legal battle over his
original directive. But he said
the White House was also
weighing other alternatives,
including making changes to
the order, which suspended
the nation’s refugee program
and barred all entries from
seven
Muslim-majority
countries.
The president said a new
executive order would likely
change “very little” from the
first.
Trump’s comments came
a day after the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals
upheld a restraining order
on the original travel ban.
While a White House offi-
cial initially suggested the
administration would not ask
the Supreme Court to over-
turn that order, chief of staff
Reince Priebus later said
“every single court option
is on the table,” including a
high court appeal.
Priebus said the adminis-
tration was also considering
“fighting out this case on the
merits” in a lower court.
Trump’s executive order
was hastily unveiled at the
end of his first week in office.
It caused chaos at airports in
the U.S. and sparked protests
across the country.
The president has cast the
order as crucial for national
security. Earlier Friday, he
promised to take action “very
rapidly” to protect the U.S.
and its citizens in the wake
of the appeals court decision,
but he did not specify what
steps he planned to take.
“We’ll be doing things to
continue to make our country
safe,” Trump pledged at a
news conference with Japa-
nese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe. “It will happen rapidly.
We will not allow people into
our country who are looking
to do harm to our people.”
The president’s comments
were far more restrained
than his angry reaction to
last week’s initial court
ruling blocking the travel
ban. Trump took aim at both
the “so-called judge” in that
case and the ruling, which he
called “ridiculous.”
Trump continued to
conjure images of unspec-
ified danger Friday, saying
he had “learned tremendous
things that you could only
learn, frankly, if you were
in a certain position, namely
president. And there are
tremendous threats to our
country. We will not allow
that to happen, I can tell you
that. We will not allow that to
happen.”
The 9th Circuit ruling
represented a significant
setback for Trump in just
his third week in office. The
appellate decision brushed
aside arguments by the
Justice Department that the
president has the constitu-
tional power to restrict entry
to the United States and that
the courts cannot second-
guess his determination that
such a step was needed to
prevent terrorism.
Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer tweeted
that Trump “ought to see
the writing on the wall” and
abandon the proposal. The
New York Democrat called
on the president to “roll up
his sleeves” and come up
with “a real, bipartisan plan
to keep us safe.”
House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi of California
promised, “Democrats will
continue to press for Presi-
dent Trump’s dangerous and
unconstitutional ban to be
withdrawn.” And Trump’s
former presidential rival
Hillary Clinton offered a
terse response on Twitter,
noting the unanimous vote:
“3-0.”
Congress’
Republican
leaders, House Speaker Paul
Ryan and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell,
declined to comment.
U.S. District Judge James
Robart in Seattle issued the
temporary restraining order
halting the ban after Wash-
ington state and Minnesota
sued, leading to the federal
government’s appeal.
The Trump administration
has said the seven nations —
Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria and Yemen
— have raised terrorism
concerns. The states have
argued that the executive
order
unconstitutionally
blocked entry based on
religion and the travel ban
harmed individuals, busi-
nesses and universities.
Trump and his aides
frequently refer to a ruling
by a federal judge in Boston
who declined last week to
extend a temporary injunc-
tion against Trump’s travel
ban. In a separate federal
ruling in Seattle, a different
federal judge put the ban on
hold nationwide; it is that
judge’s decision that the
White House has challenged.
“It’s a decision that we’ll
win, in my opinion, very
easily and, by the way, we
won that decision in Boston,”
Trump said.
Turkey’s Erdogan
approves voting on
powerful presidency
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)
— Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
approved holding a national
referendum on constitutional
reforms that would usher
in a powerful presidency,
a change he has strongly
advocated.
Erdogan signed off on the
bill, paving the way for the
country’s electoral board to
set a date for the referendum.
The
bill
envisions
granting the office of the
presidency — currently a
largely ceremonial position
— the power to appoint
government ministers and
senior officials, dissolve
parliament, declare states
of emergency, issue decrees
and appoint half of the
members in the country’s
highest
judicial
body.
Parliament had approved the
reform package in hotly, and
at times violently, debated
sessions last month.
The proposed changes
were backed by a majority of
lawmakers in the assembly
but failed to clear the
threshold needed to come
into force without a public
vote.
Deputy Prime Minister
Numan Kurtulmus said the
referendum was likely to be
held on April 26.
A change to the presi-
dential system would be a
crowning achievement for
Erdogan, who has outma-
neuvered and crushed all his
major foes.
Critics say it would
concentrate even more
power in the hands of a
leader they accuse of author-
itarian behavior with little
tolerance for dissent.
Police disperse
protests against
university purges
ANKARA, Turkey
(AP) — Police have
used tear gas to disperse
protesters trying to enter
Ankara University to
denounce a government
decree that dismissed 330
academics. At least five
protesters were detained.
The academics were
among some 4,500
civil servants that were
sacked Tuesday under
the state of emergency
declared following a
failed coup attempt
in July. Although
introduced to deal with
the alleged perpetrators
of the coup, critics say
the government is using
emergency powers to
pursue all opponents.
On Friday, police
dispersed students,
teachers, civic society
representatives and
some opposition
legislators who gathered
outside the prestigious
faculty of political
science, where some
20 staff members were
dismissed.
Campaigning for and
against the reforms has
begun with supporters of the
bill having the upper hand
and dominating air time.
Opponents of the bill
complain that they cannot
get their views across to the
public in a country where
most opposition media has
been silenced.
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