Suspense as Trump non-committal about planned visits to Vietnam, Philippines

12:00 | 18/09/2017

Canceling such trips would push the U.S. closer to retreating from a region that China is salivating at, analysts say.

U.S. President Donald Trump waits to deliver remarks to military personnel and families at

Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., September 15, 2017. Photo by Reuters/Yuri Gripas

The lack of unequivocal confirmation from U.S. President Donald Trump about whether he will attend two major regional summits this November in Vietnam and the Philippines has yet again raised questions over Washington’s commitment to Southeast Asia.

“It would be devastating to U.S. regional leadership to skip both APEC and EAS after promising to attend,” Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote on Twitter. He was referring to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam and the East Asia Summit in the Philippines.

“That would confirm Southeast Asia's fears about this White House,” Poling added.

Vice President Mike Pence announced in April during a visit to Jakarta that Trump would attend the summits in Vietnam and the Philippines. But just last week, Trump appeared unambivalent about both visits.

"We’ll probably all be going over (to Asia) in a group in November. And we’ll be doing Japan, South Korea, possibly Vietnam with the conference," Trump was quoted by Reuters as saying last Thursday. When asked about the East Asia summit in the Philippines, Trump acknowledged he had been invited, but said: "We're going to see."

It is always difficult to pin down the message of the U.S. president, but analysts do not rule out the possibility of a last-minute change.

“I don't know if Trump intended to say what he said precisely or if it was just the wording or turn of phrase he used,” Murray Hiebert, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said of Trump’s latest statement on his upcoming Asia visits.

“I know his advance team is still expected in Vietnam in early October and U.S. officials working in Vietnam have not been informed that he may not come,” Hiebert said. “Trump and senior U.S. officials have said frequently that the president will come to APEC, although, of course, some contingencies back in the U.S. could make it difficult for Trump to come.”

Analysts say if he does cancel the two regional summits in Vietnam and the Philippines, his administration will be another step closer to retreating from a region that China is salivating at marching on with its expansionism stratagem.

"A Trump no show in Manila would undermine all the work and effort put in by the Obama administration to demonstrate that Southeast Asia counts," Carl Thayer, a longtime analyst of regional security and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales, said. "A Trump no show would undermine U.S. credibility as a security provider for the region," he said.

"In brief, if Trump withdraws from his commitment to attend [those] summits, it would be an act of political vandalism that gravely weakens the region's security architecture."

e.vnexpress