It is often said that it takes two to tango. But it was Donald Trump’s solo dance moves upon arrival in Malaysia, the first stage of his tour of Asia. The US president repeated the moment in front of the military on board the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, off Japan. He was accompanied by the new prime minister Sanae Takaichi, but kept the dance alone. Yesterday in South Korea, all eyes were on another type of choreography: the one surrounding his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And if we don’t know who gave music to whom, both sides seem to have left the meeting satisfied. And the world breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the postponement of a trade war between the two world’s leading powers that would affect the global economy.
With the US immersed in a shutdown With no end in sight and millions on the streets for days against his Administration’s policies, Trump decided to cross the Pacific in search of comfort. And that’s what he found. From Malaysia he brought the signing of the peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, a solution to the recent violence between the two countries on the border that gave Trump the chance to end yet another war. The eighth, according to his own count.
From Kuala Lumpur, he went to Japan, where he not only had the right to a meeting with Emperor Naruhito, but was also received with pomp and circumstance by the new prime minister. The first woman in office in Japan, Sanae Takaichi spared no effort to please her guest – after a lunch of rice and meat imported from the USA, she offered the US president a golf club that will belong to Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister assassinated in 2022, his mentor and close to Trump. From Tokyo, the American president brought two trade agreements, a commitment to more defense spending, the promise of a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and a new friend.
Mass piece of resistance The visit took place in South Korea, where he strengthened the alliance and where the summit with Xi took place. The two had already been together five times and if the military base next to Busan airport didn’t offer the glamour of the Forbidden City, in 2017, served its purposes. Trump returned home not only with the gold crown offered by the South Korean president upon arrival but also with an understanding with Xi to reduce tariffs on China and on rare earths.
Sometimes described as an isolationist, Trump showed on this visit to Asia that he can really dance with China’s neighbors. And we have to admit that it is difficult to imagine Xi Jinping achieving the same in the US neighborhood.
Executive editor of Diário de Notícias