Haley leaves in latest Trump shake-up

WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS - The resignation of Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday is unlikely result in a change in the country's approach toward other countries it views as competitors, according to some experts.

"I fully expect that the next US ambassador to the UN will continue Trump's provocative foreign policy," said Jon Taylor, a professor of political science of the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

"In this respect, Haley's departure is relatively meaningless as long as (Donald) Trump is president, because his adversarial approach drives American foreign policy," Taylor said.

He said it was "a surprising resignation, but does little to move the United States away from its chaotic, 'America First', inward-looking foreign policy. Haley was, like the US, isolated at the UN and within the Trump administration. Her approach, which mirrored Trump's policies, had a mixed record of success and failure".

Trump told reporters that he was considering five candidates for Haley's job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks or maybe sooner.

Douglas H. Paal, vice-president of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "It all depends on who is selected to replace her, and whom that person represents in an administration of divided foreign policy perspectives".

"In any event, former ambassador to the UN (John) Bolton may have a substantial say, and his views would be very critical of the UN as an institution."

Bolton is now Trump's national security advisor.

Haley said that she was resigning but dismissed speculation that she might challenge US President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley said her 18 months at the United Nations have been "an honor of a lifetime" and that she would stay on until the end of the year.

Trump said Haley had told him six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end of the year "to take a little time off".

"She has done an incredible job. She is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it," Trump said.

Haley, 46, a former governor of South Carolina and the daughter of Indian immigrants, is the highest-profile woman in Trump's Cabinet. She criticized Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has been the face of his policies at the UN, steering the US withdrawal from several UN programs and ardently defending his hardline policies against Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea over their nuclear programs.

China Daily - Reuters

(China Daily 10/11/2018 page12)