Thorny global issues abound a year into Trump presidency
With a sharp departure from years and sometimes decades of U.S. foreign policy, President Donald Trump has made a seismic global impact during his first year in office.
It has been delivered with his own brand of bombast and occasional threats.
Contentious issues have always existed, especially in conflict-ridden or volatile countries, but has he improved or worsened matters? Twelve months into his presidency, Associated Press correspondents take stock:
RUSSIA
Trump repeatedly declared in his campaign that he would improve relations with Russia but was never specific. A year into his presidency, it's no clearer. Moscow and Washington are at odds over issues ranging from North Korea to Ukraine, despite Trump's open admiration of President Vladimir Putin.
Russian officials had high hopes that Trump would move to abandon or reduce the sanctions that the United States imposed over Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Instead, Trump approved selling lethal weapons to Ukraine for the fight against the rebels, he appointed a Russia hawk as Washington's envoy for Ukraine's peace process, and his U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, declared that the Crimea sanctions wouldn't be lifted unless the peninsula is returned to Ukraine.
Trump even signed legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia - unwillingly, but effectively forced to by the measure's near-unanimous Senate approval. Publicly, the Kremlin contends Trump is hogtied by suspicions of Russia held over from the Barack Obama era and by hysteria over allegations that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election and that Trump and Russia had colluded.
Trump himself has criticized Russia, saying Moscow "seeks to challenge American values, influence and wealth," and complaining he is not satisfied with Russia's role in easing tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Russia contends the U.S. wants to undermine the deal limiting Iran's nuclear program and that Washington clandestinely supports Islamic fighters in Syria.
Although Trump has a taste for defying conventional political wisdom, his potential moves toward Russia appear constricted until the investigation into his campaign's dealings with Russia concludes and leaves him untarnished. While the probe continues, the Kremlin is edging from quiet disappointment into needling suggestions of U.S. weakness.
"Will they show good will? Will they gather courage, exercise common sense?" Putin said.
ASIA
Asia was one of Trump's punching bags during his election campaign. Chinese and Japanese exports were destroying U.S. jobs. South Korea and Japan weren't paying enough for U.S. troops defending their countries.
Then came Kim Jong Un.
Two weeks before Trump took office, the leader of North Korea declared in a New Year's address that preparations for an intercontinental ballistic missile were in "the final stage." Trump tweeted in response: "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!"
Both sides traded threats and insults, and North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and three ICBM launches that demonstrated at least a theoretical ability to reach the U.S.
Seeking China's help on isolating North Korea through economic sanctions, Trump backed off a threat to label China a currency manipulator. He was off-and-on conciliatory on trade during an extended visit to Asia in November, and China said it would lift restrictions on foreign investment in its banks and other financial institutions.
As his second year in office dawns, however, Trump appears to be moving steadily toward raising tariffs or restricting imports to try to force China to take steps to narrow its trade surplus with the United States.
Kim began the year with his own conciliatory note: sending a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea. But he also said in a Jan. 1 speech that North Korea's nuclear and missile tests have achieved a powerful deterrent that "nothing can reverse."
SYRIA, IRAQ AND THE ISLAMIC STATE
Trump can claim credit for the virtual defeat of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria on his watch. He largely continued Obama's anti-IS strategy and intensified it. U.S. troop levels were increased in both countries, coalition commanders got more authority to call airstrikes and operations focused on killing more militants rather than allowing their escape, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
The biggest victory was retaking the Iraqi city of Mosul, launched under Obama. Iraqi forces later retook nearly all the territory held by IS and the government declared victory over the group in December.
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