NEW YORK - That President-elect Donald Trump's first sitdown with a foreign leader is with Japan's Shinzo Abe is telling: the Republican billionaire's rise to power has rattled America's Asian allies. Unmoored from Washington, Japan and South Korea may feel obliged to develop nuclear arsenals of their own or make accommodations with US rival Beijing. - North Korea and security -Trump has no foreign policy experience and may have underestimated the alarm his words would cause in Asia when he whipped up partisan crowds in the US heartland when he mocked US allies. "You know we have a treaty with Japan, where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the United States?" Obama's administration has been reluctant to risk confrontation in the South China Sea, where Beijing is building artificial islands to reinforce its disputed claim to a stretch of maritime territory.

Source: Bangkok Post November 17, 2016 19:49 UTC