TOKYO (AP) – Ash Carter’s final swing across Asia as Pentagon chief shines a spotlight on tough issues to be inherited by his successor, from concern in Tokyo and Seoul about being forced to pay more for U.S. military protection to worry across the region about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Carter also will hand off to the next defense secretary unfinished diplomatic business, including deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea that North Korea and China consider provocative, and uncertain military relations with a longtime treaty ally, the Philippines.
An increasingly muscular China, too, presents the incoming Trump administration with significant military challenges. Among them are Beijing’s moves to establish military footholds on artificial reefs and islets in the South China Sea, which has become a flashpoint.
An older and potentially even more sensitive point of contention is Taiwan, which U.S. leaders have for years avoided giving any official recognition in deference to China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory. Trump broke with decades of U.S. presidential practice by speaking by telephone last week with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
On a flight to Tokyo on Monday, Carter said he was pleased at the more diverse avenues of security cooperation available in Asia now, including closer consultations between the U.S., Japan and South Korea on the prospect of a nuclear-armed and provocative North Korea.