Opinion | Why Trump’s no-show at East Asia Summit is a massive own goal
Trump’s absence from an Asean gathering during his trip to Asia will only reinforce the narrative of a United States adrift in the region, writes Ankit Panda
Back in November 2011, former US President Barack Obama travelled to Bali in Indonesia and became the first US leader to take part in an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-hosted East Asia Summit.
At the time, observers in the region welcomed the move, which roughly coincided with the start of the administration’s thinking which stressed that Asia’s role in US foreign policy was central in the 21st century. The Obama administration used the summit as one of the launch pads for its “pivot” to Asia strategy.
Obama attended every East Asia Summit in the following years of his administration, bar one, adding high-level heft to the US insistence that Asia mattered to the United States and that the US would matter to Asia in the 21st century – even as a rising China loomed large on the horizon.
The one year Obama was unable to attend the East Asia Summit – in Brunei in 2013 – Chinese President Xi Jinping stole the spotlight.
Amid domestic political dysfunction leading to a government shutdown, Obama had to dispatch his secretary of state to the summit, unable to attend himself.
