TRUMP SKIPS FINAL SUMMIT BUT SAYS TRIP WAS A SUCCESS
US President Donald Trump skipped the plenary session of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila on Tuesday because of scheduling delays, but he said his five-nation trip to the region had been a success.
Trump left for home after a lunch with the other leaders, as meetings were running about two hours behind schedule. He delivered his prepared remarks during the lunch instead of the summit meeting.
In Trump’s place, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attended the plenary session that was expected to run into the evening.
The US president, who began his journey with a stop in Japan 13 days ago, said his marathon trip had seen progress in his goal of narrowing America’s yawning trade deficits.
“I’ve made a lot of friends at the highest levels,” Trump told reporters shortly before boarding Air Force One at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, stressing the trip was “tremendously successful.”
“I think the fruits … are going to be incredible,” he added.
Trump said his trip had re- sulted in at least $300 billion, possibly triple that figure, of deals being agreed. He did not elaborate.
“We’ve explained that the United States is open for trade but we want reciprocal, we want fair trade for the United States,” he said.
Trade and concern about possible protectionism under Trump’s “America First” agenda have come up during his visit to the region, which included stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The final summit groups the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Russia, as well as the United States.
Pomp and pageantry
In a trip that was dominated by the North Korean nuclear crisis, Trump was treated to pomp and pageantry in Japan and South Korea, where he repeatedly blasted the regime of Kim Jong-un.
In China, where President Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for a “state visit plus,” a welcome that Trump declared “people really have never seen anything like,” the White House trumpeted more than $250 billion of trade deals.
But analysts say the headline figure hides a paucity of deliver- ables, with lots of the agreements being nonbinding memorandums of understanding. Many of these agreements will take years to yield results and some will never materialize.
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam, Trump returned to the topic of North Korea in what aides said was part of a strategy of forging a global front to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its weapons program.
In the Philippines, Trump trumpeted his “great relationship” with President Duterte and said strong US ties with the Philippines were vital for military reasons.