Trump Asia Trip Sees Defense, Security Deals With South Korea, Japan, ASEAN

Welcome back to Foreign policyReport Your Situation The co-authors have been involved in serious diplomatic and commercial negotiations about their contributions to today’s newsletter.

On that note, here’s what’s on offer for today: Trump’s Asian deals Give the defense a boost before it rises A confusing nuclear claimand CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang MAGA stops in Washington.

US President Donald Trump waited nine months into his second term to take a trip to Asia, but the series of agreements he signed with countries in the region – as well as a temporary trade truce with China – suggest that the visit was worth his time.

While trade, tariffs and critical minerals dominated the agenda, there were deals on defense investment, cooperation and production within many of those agreements. But Trump also caused some upset and upset when he initially repeatedly pressed allies like South Korea and Japan to spend more on their own defense and then suddenly announced on his Social Truth platform that the United States would “begin testing our nuclear weapons” (more on the latter below).

Meanwhile, Trump has some big defense dollars to promote.

South Korea The United States has signed a $2.3 billion deal with US defense company L3Harris Technologies to develop “warning and control” aircraft for its air force, according to a White House fact sheet.

The two countries also strengthened their growing shipbuilding partnership, with Korean companies Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean contributing more than $10 billion to help modernize U.S. shipyards.

in JapanTrump made a deal with newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaishi to cooperate on shipbuilding. The two countries also committed to coordinating more closely on investment mechanisms related to national security, and Tokyo said it would “pursue new sanctions frameworks to target ships linked to shadow fleets.”

Japan has also begun receiving medium-range air-to-air missiles for its U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets on an “accelerated” basis, the White House said.

Several agreements agreed at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia earlier in the week also strengthened defense and security cooperation with Washington, including a memorandum of understanding with the United States. Malaysia On “Maritime Security and Maritime Domain Awareness”. Malaysia and the Philippines have become the latest countries to sign the Artemis Accords, a US-led set of principles for space exploration.

The United States also agreed to lift the arms embargo Cambodia Which imposed in 2021 on the country’s relations with the Chinese army and the resumption of bilateral military exercises for the first time since 2017.

American aircraft manufacturer Boeing was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the trip, obtaining pledges to sell 103 aircraft to the South Korean airline and up to 60 aircraft to Malaysia.

Trump’s defense deals in the region began days before his landing, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington resulting in nearly $6 billion in planned purchases of US unmanned underwater vehicles, helicopters, and missiles, as well as repeated commitment to the trilateral AUKUS submarine deal.

The FBI is strongly opposing a House bill that would give Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard more oversight over counterintelligence, revealing an apparent battle within the intelligence community under the Trump administration. The proposal would make the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the top counterintelligence agency in the federal government.

The FBI has long been the nation’s leading agency in counterintelligence, or working to thwart foreign spies and intelligence threats, and the bureau wrote a letter to congress expressing its “strong objection” to the proposal. In the unclassified letter, the FBI said the proposed changes “would cause serious and long-term harm” to US national security.

What should be on your radar, if it isn’t already.

Nuclear? Not clear. On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had ordered the Pentagon to “immediately” begin testing nuclear weapons on “an equal footing” with other countries. The ad is confusing for several reasons. The United States, Russia and China have not tested live nuclear weapons since the 1990s. Other than North Korea, no nuclear power has conducted nuclear explosive tests in more than two decades.

The White House did not immediately respond to a SitRep request for comment on whether Trump has ordered live nuclear tests or just wants to see the Pentagon ramp up nuclear weapons testing — an already routine practice. But in his comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington from Asia, Trump said other countries “all appear to be testing nuclear,” adding: “I think we should be testing.” Trump said details of the timing would be announced at a later time. Despite advocating a voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosions for decades, the United States has maintained the ability to resume underground testing at a facility in Nevada, according to the Congressional Research Service, but preparing for the test could take up to 36 months.

Trump’s statement, which alarmed Democratic lawmakers and nuclear experts, came shortly before his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China has increased its nuclear stockpile in recent years, and Trump may be trying to send a signal to Xi. Russia has also tested nuclear-capable weapons and nuclear-powered weapons in recent days, but this is far from the same level of significance as detonating a nuclear warhead. Along these lines, the Kremlin offered a somewhat bewildered reaction to Trump’s statement, saying, “We didn’t know anyone was testing,” while warning that Moscow would follow suit if Washington abandoned the moratorium.

Withdrawal of American forces from Eastern Europe. The United States is withdrawing some of its forces from several NATO countries, including a few countries bordering Ukraine. The Trump administration faced rare bipartisan criticism over the move. Our colleague Sam Skov provides more details on the controversial decision.

The Gaza ceasefire has been tested (again). As John mentioned, Israel launched deadly airstrikes in Gaza this week in response to alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas. The raids resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people in Gaza. Israel launched the raids after one of its soldiers was killed in an attack, but Hamas denied its involvement.

This was not the first time the Trump-brokered truce has been tested since it began on October 10. But the Trump administration downplayed the significance of the Israeli strikes and said they did not jeopardize the ceasefire, which Israel said on Wednesday was working again.

The world’s largest company, which hit a market value of $5 trillion this week, hosted a massive conference in Washington, where CEO Jensen Huang repeatedly praised the city’s most prominent residents. “Trump deserves tremendous credit” for energy policies that benefit the artificial intelligence industry spearheaded by Nvidia chips and data centers, Huang said during a nearly two-hour keynote speech, which he concluded with a nod to Trump’s signature slogan.

Nvidia has benefited greatly from the Trump administration’s goal of ushering in a global AI boom led by the United States, signing major deals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during Trump’s trip to the region and getting administration approval to sell some of its AI chips to China despite national security concerns. Hwang has been pushing for more market access in China, and traveled to South Korea on Thursday, where Trump met with Xi there; However, the talks between the two world leaders did not result in any immediate concessions to Nvidia.

“The benefit to the United States is for American technology to be available in China to win the hearts and minds of its developers,” Huang told reporters (including SitRep) on Wednesday. “For both countries, I really think having American companies serving this market is beneficial.”

When asked about his close relationship with Trump, the CEO said: “I came for one purpose only, which is to inform the president and be of service to him as he thinks about how to make America great and do the best thing for America.” However, Huang also proudly confirmed that Nvidia was one of the companies funding Trump’s efforts to build a new ballroom at the White House, for which the US president demolished the East Wing of the White House.

Saturday 1 November: The ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting is scheduled to begin in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday 2 November: Eight OPEC+ countries are scheduled to hold an online meeting.

Tuesday 4 November: Governor elections are scheduled to be held in New Jersey and Virginia, while mayoral elections will be held in New York City.

The French National Assembly is scheduled to hold a vote on the 2026 budget.

Wednesday 5 November: The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in cases related to Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs.

“It’s very clear that I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.”

Trump’s admission that the US Constitution prevents him from running for a third term, a possibility that the president and his allies had previously suggested and is on the table.