Reactions are still coming from President Trump's first address to Congress since returning to office. But some policy moves touching Hawaiʻi are moving more quietly than the president's remarks.
It's a familiar theme from the Trump administration: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan should all spend more money on defense. Elbridge Colby agrees — he's President Trump's choice for under secretary of defense for policy, the No. 3 position at the Pentagon.
This week, he testified to a Senate hearing that he favors shifting resources away from Europe and the Middle East to focus on China and its threats to the Asia-Pacific region.
This resonates in Hawaiʻi, where Oʻahu is home to Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the entire region.
That includes some 55,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan and another 28,500 in South Korea.
Colby told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that Japan “should be spending at least 3% of GDP on defense as soon as possible.”
Japan's prime minister said Wednesday that Japan “determines its own defense spending, not at the direction of any other country.” Japan's current plans are to increase that spending to 2% of GDP in two years.
According to its own government figures, South Korea now spends just under 3% of its GDP on defense.
Taiwan recently cut its defense budget, which is now at about 2.5% of its annual economic output.
Colby's advice to Taiwan, citing Trump, is to increase that to about 10% of GDP.
