Daily Times

US President Donald Trump didn’t make it to this week’s summit of Asian nations in Singapore, but his influence was still keenly felt among the leaders who gathered in the city.

One prime minister warned that the trade war between Washington and Beijing could trigger a “domino effect” of protectionist steps by other countries. Another fretted that the international order could splinter into rival blocs.

“The most important and talked-about … leader, President Trump, is the only one that did not turn up,” said Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. And yet, in Trump’s absence, countries from South to East Asia pressed on with forging multilateral ties on trade and investment among themselves, including with China.

China’s representative at the meetings, Premier Li Keqiang, egged them on.

“Now the world is facing rising protectionism. It is all the more important for us to come together and respond to the complex world situation to uphold multilateralism and free trade,” Li said on Thursday.

The US president’s lack of engagement with Asian nations came just days after a trip to France for World War One commemorations at which he appeared isolated from NATO allies.

Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said Trump was inadvertently bringing Asian nations together.

“Not necessarily by design, but because he is not being a consistent and reassuring presence, and because his policies have tended to fracture the natural order that Asia is dependent upon,” he said. “Asians are trying to figure out what else they can do without relying on America too much.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Two Powers: Two Strategies

As well as the summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asian nations in Singapore, Trump will also skip the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Papua New Guinea at the end of the week.

At APEC on Friday, President Xi Jinping will showcase China’s Belt and Road initiative to Pacific leaders, several of whom are expected to sign up to the infrastructure investment drive.

Xi’s multi-billion-dollar plan, which aims to bolster a sprawling network of land and sea links with Asian neighbours and far beyond, is viewed with suspicion in Western capitals as an attempt to assert Chinese influence.

Trump attended both the ASEAN and APEC meetings in 2017, and his decision to stay away this year has raised questions about Washington’s commitment to a regional strategy to counter China.

Vice President Mike Pence, who represented Trump in Singapore, told the meeting that United States’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific is “steadfast and enduring.”

Published in Daily Times, November 17^th 2018.