North Korea: Singapore urges Trump to resolve nuclear crisis

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged President Donald Trump to use talks to help resolve the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

“Pressure is necessary, but so is dialogue,” Mr Lee said in joint remarks with Mr Trump in the White House Rose Garden. “The US will need to work with others, including China, South Korea and Japan and Russia, to resolve the issue.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly taken aggressive tone in his comments about North Korea, saying the US would “totally destroy” the regime if forced to defend itself or its allies. Meanwhile, other US officials have been more measured in their remarks.

The prime minister also encouraged Mr Trump to build a good relationship with China, noting that Singapore and other countries in the region “watch your relations with China very closely” and see it as “the most important bilateral relationship in the world.”

Mr Trump will travel to Asia next month for a 12-day trip, during which he will meet with leaders in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be his longest tour abroad as President to date.

“Although the President is not visiting Singapore this time around, I have invited him to visit Singapore at the earliest opportunity, and I'm very glad that he has accepted,” Mr Lee said.

During his stop in Beijing, Mr Trump will try to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to rein in North Korea, after having criticised the country for not taking more action on the issue.

In the past, Chinese diplomats have asserted that the US and its allies should not depend so much on China to ease tensions created by North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons and missile capabilities.

Mr Trump has suggested that if China plays a larger role, he may change his views on trade between Americans and the Chinese.

“We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade with China,” Mr Trump said in August, referring to the large US-China trade deficit, which he has repeatedly railed against. “They know how I feel. It’s not going to continue like that. But if China helps us, I feel a lot differently toward trade, a lot differently toward trade.”

During the press conference on Monday, Mr Lee noted that the US has consistently run a trade surplus with Singapore, which stood at over US$18bn in 2016.

Mr Trump also lauded the US’s relationship with Singapore.

“Singapore’s strong commitment to the rule of law, to [intellectual] property protections, and to the principles of fair and reciprocal – one of my favourite words when it comes to trade – has made the country a magnet for business,” he said in the Rose Garden. “Today, over 4,000 American companies are operating in Singapore, and we have a very large trading relationship with Singapore.”

Mr Trump has made clear that he views trade deficits to be an indicator of economic health.

Economic experts, meanwhile, have asserted that using trade deficits or surpluses to measure US commercial relations with any single country ignores the complexities of trade in today's global economy. What matters is the totality of trade, the experts argue.

Before the press conference in the Rose Garden, Boeing signed a $13.8bn deal to sell 39 aircraft to Singapore Airlines.

Mr Trump emphasised that a new Boeing deal with the company will create 70,000 jobs in the US.

"Otherwise we'll cancel the order," the President joked.