National Security Adviser Robert O\u2019Brien said Trump regretted he was unable to attend the online summit with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but stressed the importance of ties with the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time of global crisis, the US-ASEAN strategic partnership has become even more important as we work together to combat the coronavirus,\u201d O\u2019Brien said in remarks at the opening ceremony, which was livestreamed to ASEAN members watching from their respective countries.<\/p>\n
Trump attended the ASEAN summit in 2017, but sent only representatives during the last two meetings. A special summit with ASEAN that he was supposed to host in Las Vegas in March was called off due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Trump has been busy challenging the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election, insisting he was the victim of election fraud. Most countries have acknowledged Joe Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
The White House said in a statement that O\u2019Brien was also representing the US at an East Asia virtual summit later Saturday that included ASEAN members as well as China, Japan and South Korea. Despite Trump\u2019s absence, it said ASEAN remains central to his vision for a \u201cfree and open Indo-Pacific,\u201d Washington\u2019s strategy to counter China\u2019s growing influence in the region.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s sway in the region is set to expand with a free trade agreement that will be inked Sunday. The pact, which will cover almost a third of the world economy, includes the ASEAN nations, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
India backed out of the plan last year, and it does not include the United States, despite America\u2019s $2 trillion in trade with the countries in the pact.
\nIn his remarks Saturday, O\u2019Brien touted ASEAN as the fourth-largest trading partner for the US, with trade reaching over $354 billion last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deeply appreciate ASEAN partners\u2019 efforts to keep the key supply chains open, factories operating and PPE flowing,\u201d O\u2019Brien said, referring to personal protective equipment used to protect against the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
He noted that the US had contributed $87 million to combat the coronavirus in Southeast Asia, including providing American-made ventilators and PPE. \u201cThe United States has your back and we know you have ours,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
At the separate summit later Saturday, China, Japan and South Korea sought deeper regional cooperation to battle the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacing a possible second wave as winter is setting in, we can work together to mitigate the pandemic and to reopen the economy,\u201d said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump skipped a summit with his Southeast Asian counterparts for the third year in a row on Saturday, with rival China set to expand its influence with a massive free trade deal in the region. National Security Adviser Robert O\u2019Brien said Trump regretted he was unable to attend the online summit with the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-30"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}