Jim Mattis , the U.S. defense secretary, told an international audience on Saturday that recent decisions by the Trump administration “does not mean we are turning our back” on the rest of the world. 
 
 “We will still be there, and we will be there with you,” he said, speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. 
 
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 "Like it or not, we are a part of the world," Mattis said, according to Reuters . "What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our borders." 
 
 He went on to paraphrase former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 
 
 “To quote a British observer of us from some years ago, bear with us,” Mattis continued, according to The New York Time s. “Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing.” 
 
 Mattis was at the event to speak about North Korea’s nuclear program and Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea. 
 
 “We have a deep and abiding commitment to reinforcing the rules-based international order,” he said. ||||| The secretary of defense added it would be a ‘crummy world’ if Americans retreat, as US leadership and international commitment came under question 
 
 US secretary of defense James Mattis has urged allies to “bear with us”, noting it would be a “crummy world” if Americans retreated into isolationism. 
 
 
 
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 Mattis was responding to questions at a conference in Singapore about US leadership and commitment to a rules-based international order, in the wake of Donald Trump’s announcement that his administration will leave the Paris climate change accord, putting the country in the company of only Nicaragua and Syria. 
 
 “As far as the rules-based order, you know, obviously we have a new president in Washington DC,” Mattis said at the event organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “We’re all aware of that. And there is going to be fresh approaches taken.” 
 
 He defended Trump, pointing out that the president had just made his first foreign trip, “straight into the heart of one of the most bewildering and difficult challenges” in the Middle East. However, the defense secretary did acknowledge a historical “reluctance” among Americans to engage with the world. 
 
 “The 20th century took us out of that,” he said. “What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our own borders. How many people deprived of good lives during the Depression? How many tens of millions of people killed in WWII? Like it or not, we’re part of the world.” 
 
 Mattis said that though there was a sense among some Americans that the country was bearing “an inordinate burden”, global engagement was still “very deeply rooted in the American psyche”. 
 
 “Bear with us,” he said before going to paraphrase a quote from Winston Churchill: “Once we’ve exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing.” 
 
 Kori Schake, a Stanford University defense expert who has co-edited a book with Mattis on the relationship between the US military and civilians, said he had given “a speech replete with the reassurances America’s Asian allies crave: the importance of a rules-based international order, America’s enduring commitment to its allies and willingness to run risks for our common security, centrality of values in our alliance relationships”. 
 
 “Yet despite the enormous admiration allies have for Mattis, every question was some version of, ‘How can we believe you when the president talks and acts so differently?’ added Schake, who was a senior defense official in the Bush administration. 
 
 Mattis did not directly address the decision to leave the Paris accord, but during the administration’s internal debate on the issue he said it was not really his job to intervene in the argument. 
 
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 “Frankly, it’s not inside my portfolio, that aspect,” he told CBS News last weekend. “Obviously we deal with the aspects of a warming climate in the Department of Defense, and to us, that’s just another one of many factors we deal with which we call the physical environment.” 
 
 Past Pentagon and intelligence community assessments have presented climate change as a serious long term threat to national security. 
 
 A former senior official in the national security council, Loren DeJonge Schulman, said the White House debate did not seem to have been carried out in a very organised way, with no representations from the Pentagon and not much science. 
 
 
 
 “No one appeared to be in charge of running the debate,” Schulman, now at the Centre for a New American Security, said on Twitter. 
 
 “That matters for a few reasons: no one was ensuring that all perspectives were included. Mattis called this not his job jar, but [the defense department] and [intelligence community] have each commented, across admins, on costly and risky impacts of climate change ... 
 
 “But most importantly: we had no scientists with a real voice in the room.” ||||| SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States is encouraged by China’s efforts to restrain North Korea but Washington will not accept Beijing’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday. 
 
 The comments by Mattis, during the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, show how U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to balance working with China to restrain North Korea’s advancing missile and nuclear programs while dealing with Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea. 
 
 U.S. allies have been worried by Trump’s actively courting Chinese President Xi Jinping to restrain North Korea, fearing Washington might allow China a more free rein elsewhere in the region. 
 
 Some allies have also expressed concern that Washington’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific trade partnership and the Paris global climate accord signals the United States is diluting its global leadership role. 
 
 Speaking at the dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, Mattis said the United States remained fully engaged with its partners. 
 
 “Like it or not, we are a part of the world...What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our borders,” he said. 
 
 “Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing,” Mattis added, paraphrasing a quotation by British wartime leader Winston Churchill. “So we will still be there and we will be there with you.” 
 
 Nevertheless, reversing or slowing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has become a security priority for Washington, given Pyongyang’s vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. 
 
 The Trump administration has been pressing China aggressively to rein in its reclusive neighbor, warning all options are on the table if North Korea persists with its weapons programs. 
 
 “The Trump administration is encouraged by China’s renewed commitment to work with the international community toward denuclearization,” Mattis said. 
 
 “Ultimately, we believe China will come to recognize North Korea as a strategic liability, not an asset.” 
 
 However, Mattis said seeking China’s cooperation on North Korea did not mean Washington would not challenge Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea. 
 
 The U.N. Security Council on Friday expanded targeted sanctions against North Korea after its repeated missile tests, adopting the first such resolution agreed by the United States and China since Trump took office. 
 
 In another sign of increased pressure on North Korea, Japan’s navy and air force began a three-day military exercise with two U.S. aircraft carriers in the Sea of Japan on Thursday. 
 
 Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, speaking at the Singapore forum, said Tokyo backed the United States using any option to deal with North Korea, including military strikes, and was seeking a deeper alliance with Washington. 
 
 But she also said she was concerned about the situation in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis speaks at the 16th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore June 3, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su 
 
 China’s claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China and Japan both claim islands in the East China Sea. 
 
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 China, which sent only a low-key delegation to the forum, 
 
 said its ties with the United States were vital for the region. 
 
 “I believe that if China and the United States can ensure no conflict, as well as maintain mutual respect, cooperation and trust, it will contribute greatly to security in the Asia Pacific and the world,” Lt Gen He Lei, the head of Beijing’s delegation, told reporters. 
 
 Allies around the world have been concerned about the commitment of the United States since Trump took office on Jan. 20 because of his “America First” rhetoric and expectations that he would concentrate on a domestic agenda. 
 
 “We are still trying to figure out his (Trump’s) policy in our region,” said Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. “I would like to know very clearly what are the true intentions of the new administration.” 
 
 Mattis sought to ease concerns for allies in the Asia-Pacific, saying the region was a priority and the primary effort was alliance building. He added, however, that countries must “contribute sufficiently to their own security.” 
 
 In a sign of the U.S. commitment to the region, Mattis said that soon about 60 percent of overseas tactical aviation assets would be assigned to the region and he would work with the U.S. Congress on an Asia-Pacific stability initiative. 
 
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 Mattis said the United States welcomed China’s economic development, but he anticipated “friction” between the two countries. 
 
 “While competition between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, is bound to occur, conflict is not inevitable,” Mattis said. 
 
 While eager to work with China in dealing with North Korea, Mattis said the United States did not accept China placing weapons and other military assets on man-made islands in the South China Sea. 
 
 “We oppose countries militarizing artificial islands and enforcing excessive maritime claims,” Mattis said. “We cannot and will not accept unilateral, coercive changes to the status quo.”
– James Mattis, seeking to calm world leaders Saturday following President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, urged them to "bear with us," the Guardian reports. The Defense secretary, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, said Americans will do the right thing "once we have exhausted all possible alternatives." Mattis was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, according to the Hill. The conference is a major forum on security and the main topic was North Korea, but Mattis was repeatedly asked about the US' commitment to the rest of the world following Trump's decision on the Paris climate agreement and earlier decision to leave the Trans-Pacific trade agreement. While Mattis explained that some Americans think the US bears an "inordinate burden" on the global stage, he said American isolationism is a thing of the past. "Like it or not, we are a part of the world," Reuters quotes the Defense secretary as saying. "What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our borders." Mattis assured international leaders that Trump leaving the Paris climate agreement "does not mean we are turning our back" on the world. "We will still be there with you," he said. It's unclear if the forum's attendees believed him, pointing out that he appeared to be saying the opposite of the American president.