Philippines first

The return of Donald Trump and his America First agenda has been perceived by his traditional American allies as being anti-West and even pro-Russia. Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine has sowed fear among EU countries.

However, here in Asia, Trump’s return and his America First policy has been viewed more calmly. For most Asian countries, the “America First” approach is a strategy that actually has been used for more than six to seven decades. Most Asian countries, including the Philippines, were former colonies of western powers and gained their independence only after the Second World War.

It’s still fresh in the minds of many Asian political leaders that in 1969, then US president Richard Nixon said: “Except for the threat of a major power, involving nuclear weapons, the United States is going to encourage and has a right to expect that military defense will be handled by and responsibility for it taken by the Asian nations themselves.”

After the debacle of the Vietnam War, the United States has avoided being engaged in any land war in this part of the world. The exception was the war in Afghanistan which was the result of the so-called “war on terror” due to the 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City. President Biden eventually abandoned its war in Afghanistan.

The lesson of the Trump foreign policy doctrine is that the United States will always act only if its national interest is at stake. Asian countries will not consider this ominous because Western powers have always placed their national interest in dealing with Asia.

The main difference of the Trump doctrine is that the United States under Trump has begun to sound like an imperialist power. Trump’s announcement that it intends to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, if necessary, sends a clear imperialist message.

One major difference between Trump and previous American presidents is that previous presidents were more consultative. Biden, for example, consulted allies but in the end, his main agenda was also to advance the interests of the United States.

President Trump is expected to be less consultative, more unpredictable, less generous in providing assistance and will most probably demand that allies and partners will pay more for American protection. However, Asia will probably accept Trump’s approach to foreign policy because this region has learned to accept that the primary motive of the United States has always been its national interest.

For example, in 2015, China’s leader Xi Jinping stood next to then US president Obama at the White House and publicly promised not to militarize the South China Sea. However, the following year, Beijing violated that agreement and started militarizing the South China Sea and Obama did nothing.

Asian leaders should learn not to accept the hypocrisy of superpowers. For example, in a recent statement, Beijing condemned the United States for acting according to the “law of the jungle.” And ignoring the rights of weaker nations. This is an example of blatant hypocrisy since this is exactly what China is doing in the South China Sea.

According to Bilahari Kausikan, former official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore: “Asia’s long experience with Washington suggests that Trump is not sui generis.”

Trump’s America First policy is not new. Traditionally, the United States has always followed an isolationist foreign policy. During the First World War, which started in 1914, America joined the Allies only in 1917. The Second World War started in 1939 and the United States only joined after its base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked in 1941.

The Trump doctrine of America First is a lesson to every nation that foreign policy should be based primarily on the national interest. Our present alliance with the United States should be viewed mainly in terms of our need to defend ourselves from the aggression of China in the South China Sea. If and when China decides to recognize our territorial sovereignty, then we can adopt a non-aligned foreign policy.

Presently, the United States sees China as a major adversary and therefore it is to its interest to maintain its alliance with the Philippines. However, we should not be under any illusion that if and when the United States and China suddenly become allies, we may find ourselves having to look for new alliances to help defend our sovereignty.

According to Kausikan: “Western countries should learn to deal with Washington not as a superpower with almost unlimited willingness to defend them but as an offshore balancer that will use its forces discriminatingly to advance American interests first.”

This is a lesson that the Philippines should also imbibe. In the end, we must seek allies who have the same national interests as ours to protect. Another lesson we can learn is from Taiwan. While we cannot prevent an invasion from a superpower like China, we can make the cost of an invasion so high that even a superpower will find the cost of invading us too high in terms of material cost and blood. This means that our armed forces and our people must be prepared to defend our land at all costs.

In the words of Winston Churchill: “We shall fight on the beaches/We shall fight on the landing grounds/We shall fight in the fields and in the streets/We shall fight in the hills/We shall never surrender…”