President Donald Trump yesterday used the backdrop of a US naval ship in Japan to tout America's "fearsome" power in the Pacific, wrapping up a visit where he became the first foreign guest of Japan's new emperor. Addressing more than 800 uniformed service members in the belly of the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship at the Yokosuka US naval base, Trump said they were part of "the most fearsome group of American warriors this side of the Pacific".

The US military has no intention of losing its paramount status in the world, Trump said, insisting it will "forever remain second to none". "We have equipment, missiles, rockets, tanks, planes, ships -- no one in the entire world can build them like we do. It's not even close," he said. The address to the cheering military marked Memorial Day, the US holiday honouring the war dead, but

it was also clearly aimed at growing rival China and North Korea, where Trump has invested heavy diplomatic efforts to try and get the regime to give up nuclear weapons — so far with only modest results.

Trump told the sailors, marines and other personnel that they were “confronting this region’s pressing security challenges with unmatched courage.”

“You know what we’re talking about,” he said. Trump said US naval forces “proudly patrol” the region’s waters, name-checking flashpoint areas, like the South China Sea, where tensions are high over Chinese naval expansion. Earlier, Trump visited Japanese helicopter carrier JS Kaga with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.