AP, Sydney :
As tensions rose on the Korean peninsula, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who has President Donald Trump’s trust but little diplomatic experience to go with it, became the top American official headed to the region after North Korea again failed to successfully launch a ballistic missile.
Days later, the mild-mannered former governor stood along the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea and stared back at soldiers from the North. In Australia, Pence’s mission was to soothe any lingering hurt stemming from a tense telephone conversation Trump had with the prime minister in January.
A 10-day swing through four Pacific Rim nations is offering evidence that Pence has become one of Trump’s chief emissaries on the world stage, patching up relations, reassuring allies still wondering about Trump’s unpredictable ways and diving into international crises like North Korea.
Pence’s trip was planned weeks ago. But it dropped him in South Korea just in time to deliver North Korea a stern warning from the U.S.: that “all options are on the table” when it comes to curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions, and that the Trump administration will seek support from its allies to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
His foray into the DMZ and his meetings with South Korean and Japanese leaders allowed Pence to shape a key American foreign policy issue, presenting a new challenge for a politician whose prior foreign policy experience was limited to trips to the Middle East as a congressman and trade missions to Japan, China, Israel and Europe as Indiana’s governor.
Pence’s early foreign travel schedule contrasts sharply with a mostly homebound Trump, who is not scheduled to travel overseas until late May for NATO meetings in Belgium and a gathering of the Group of Seven major industrial nations in Italy. Pence partly covered that ground when he visited Germany and Belgium in February.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had visited nine countries by late April 2009, his first three months in office, checking in with allies such as Canada, Britain and Germany. The last first-term president to wait until May to take his first foreign trip was Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Enter Pence, whose still-evolving diplomatic playbook includes several components, all steeped in humility, personal ties and his religious faith.
In some ways, Pence is the advance team: His earlier trip to Europe and his Asia trip that ends Tuesday are partly laying the foundation for journeys being planned for Trump. In other ways, Pence is the face of reassurance, offering in-person outreach to world leaders Trump has clashed with or who have doubted Trump’s commitment to them at the start of his presidency.
Pence’s extensive Asia-Pacific tour produced a collection of images depicting a Pence-as-president parallel universe, from friendly consultations with leaders from across Asia, to donning a brown bomber jacket to watch North Korean soldiers along the DMZ to a speech to 2,500 cheering sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Tokyo Bay.
But it also raised questions of whether allies view Pence as speaking for Trump or whether his reassurances could easily be dismissed by one of the president’s tweets.
In meetings with his counterparts, Pence frequently passed along “greetings” from Trump and told his hosts how much America valued their alliance, language that’s commonplace in diplomacy but understated compared to the more free-wheeling Trump.
As tensions rose on the Korean peninsula, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who has President Donald Trump’s trust but little diplomatic experience to go with it, became the top American official headed to the region after North Korea again failed to successfully launch a ballistic missile.
Days later, the mild-mannered former governor stood along the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea and stared back at soldiers from the North. In Australia, Pence’s mission was to soothe any lingering hurt stemming from a tense telephone conversation Trump had with the prime minister in January.
A 10-day swing through four Pacific Rim nations is offering evidence that Pence has become one of Trump’s chief emissaries on the world stage, patching up relations, reassuring allies still wondering about Trump’s unpredictable ways and diving into international crises like North Korea.
Pence’s trip was planned weeks ago. But it dropped him in South Korea just in time to deliver North Korea a stern warning from the U.S.: that “all options are on the table” when it comes to curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions, and that the Trump administration will seek support from its allies to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
His foray into the DMZ and his meetings with South Korean and Japanese leaders allowed Pence to shape a key American foreign policy issue, presenting a new challenge for a politician whose prior foreign policy experience was limited to trips to the Middle East as a congressman and trade missions to Japan, China, Israel and Europe as Indiana’s governor.
Pence’s early foreign travel schedule contrasts sharply with a mostly homebound Trump, who is not scheduled to travel overseas until late May for NATO meetings in Belgium and a gathering of the Group of Seven major industrial nations in Italy. Pence partly covered that ground when he visited Germany and Belgium in February.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had visited nine countries by late April 2009, his first three months in office, checking in with allies such as Canada, Britain and Germany. The last first-term president to wait until May to take his first foreign trip was Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Enter Pence, whose still-evolving diplomatic playbook includes several components, all steeped in humility, personal ties and his religious faith.
In some ways, Pence is the advance team: His earlier trip to Europe and his Asia trip that ends Tuesday are partly laying the foundation for journeys being planned for Trump. In other ways, Pence is the face of reassurance, offering in-person outreach to world leaders Trump has clashed with or who have doubted Trump’s commitment to them at the start of his presidency.
Pence’s extensive Asia-Pacific tour produced a collection of images depicting a Pence-as-president parallel universe, from friendly consultations with leaders from across Asia, to donning a brown bomber jacket to watch North Korean soldiers along the DMZ to a speech to 2,500 cheering sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Tokyo Bay.
But it also raised questions of whether allies view Pence as speaking for Trump or whether his reassurances could easily be dismissed by one of the president’s tweets.
In meetings with his counterparts, Pence frequently passed along “greetings” from Trump and told his hosts how much America valued their alliance, language that’s commonplace in diplomacy but understated compared to the more free-wheeling Trump.
