President Donald Trump touches down at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam today, making his first visit to Hawaii as the nation’s chief executive.

His visit to Pearl Harbor and the U.S. Pacific Command begins a consequential 12-day trip to Asia, the longest foreign trip of his presidency. His administration, cognizant of the major issues at stake, and the complexity and delicacy of protocol, has been preparing for months. And whenever a president shifts his focus to our part of the world, of course we pay attention.

Beginning Nov. 5, Trump will visit five countries that have important cultural and economic ties to Hawaii: Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks on economic issues such as trade (and hopefully tourism), and worrisome security problems like North Korea.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Gov. David Ige and the governors of Alaska and Pacific U.S. territories to discuss issues affecting the Pacific theater. There is much to discuss: tamping down the North Korea threat, protecting Pacific marine monuments from proposed size reductions, promoting tourism from China, to name a few.

But on the whole, we hope that Trump will succeed in strengthening and expanding U.S. influence in the region — unfinished business from the previous administration.

President Barack Obama, as part of his “pivot to Asia,” pledged to maintain our military presence and strengthen economic alliances with our allies through such initiatives as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which excludes China.

“The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay,” Obama told the Australian parliament in 2011.

No doubt, the Trump administration has similar ambitions, with its own ideas on how to achieve them. Trump opposes the TPP, for example, and has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, who presides over a country rising swiftly in economic and political power, using what administration officials have called “predatory trade and investment practices.”

Trump has been more blunt and confrontational about North Korea, threatening to destroy the country and referring to its leader, Kim Jong Un, as “Rocket Man.”

North Korea has escalated its nuclear provocations — 15 tests involving 22 missiles since February, according to CNN — and has tested ICBMs that can reach our island and the U.S. mainland.

The missile tests already have prompted the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to prepare for the possibility of a nuclear strike: drafting defensive strategies and dusting off wavering-tone attack warning sirens that haven’t been used since the Cold War. The University of Hawaii and even a few local elementary schools have sent out guidance on what to do in case of North Korean nuclear attacks.

Trump’s ability to work with our key Asian allies, as well as China, to dampen this threat will be a key test of his negotiating skills, and of keen interest to us.

In Japan, Trump will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to “reaffirm the U.S.-Japan alliance,” an administration official said.

He will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in — a key opportunity to strengthen an alliance some see as uneven — as well as American and South Korean servicemembers at Camp Humphreys.

After his all-important meeting with Xi in Beijing to discuss North Korea and China’s trade practices, the president heads to Vietnam for an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Da Nang, and a meeting with President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.

Finally, Trump will confer with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila, which is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

While deeply Democratic Hawaii, the birthplace of Obama, has an uneasy relationship with Trump, we do have some shared goals — principally, a secure U.S. presence in a healthy, peaceful Pacific.

E komo mai, Mr. President. And good luck.