Obama attacks Trump over nuclear remarks
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
President Barack Obama on Friday slammed Donald Trump for suggesting that Japan and South Korea should consider developing nuclear weapons, calling the mogul ignorant about foreign policy and unfit to occupy the White House.
Speaking after a nuclear summit in Washington, Mr Obama questioned Mr Trump’s claim that Tokyo and Seoul would have less trouble dealing with North Korea if they had nuclear weapons — a suggestion the tycoon made in an interview with the New York Times that was at odds with decades of US nuclear non-proliferation policy.
“What do the statements …tell us? They tell us that the person who made the statements doesn’t know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean Peninsula or the world generally,” Mr Obama said at a press conference.
Mr Obama said the US alliance with Japan and South Korea was one of the “cornerstones” of Washington’s presence in Asia and had been “an enormous boon to American commerce and American influence”. He added that the alliance had prevented the possibility of conflicts between countries in Asia from descending into nuclear war.
“You don’t mess with that,” he said. “It is an investment that rests on the sacrifices that our men and women made back in World War II …And we don’t want somebody in the Oval Office who doesn’t recognise how important that it.”
Mr Trump’s comments about nuclear policy in Asia and a later suggestion that he would not rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe have raised even more concerns in the Republican establishment about his ability to serve as commander-in-chief. He told the Washington Post last week that he would downgrade the US role in Nato.
Asked about Iranian complaints that Iran was not getting the sanctions relief promised under last year’s nuclear deal, Mr Obama said his administration was looking at ways to “provide clarity to businesses about what transactions are, in fact, allowed” with Iran. The administration has been examining ways to allow European and Asian banks doing business with Iran to use US dollars at some stage in the process, even if the transaction itself cannot be conducted in dollars.
Some Republican lawmakers have criticised the idea, saying that it breaches commitments made by the administration to continue to block Iran from using the US financial system.
Mr Obama added that Iran was also scaring off some potential investors through “provocative actions”. “When they launch ballistic missiles with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, that makes businesses nervous,” he said.
The US leader also criticised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for efforts to clamp down on media organisations critical of his government. “I think the approach that they’ve been taking toward the press is one that could lead Turkey down a path that would be very troubling,” he said. On Thursday, Turkish security guards clashed with journalists outside the venue in Washington where Mr Erdogan gave a speech.
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