Why in news?
- Changing dynamic between the traditional hegemon, USA and its challenger, China is becoming apparent.
- While it is clear that Washington and Beijing need each other, the terms of a new economic and political settlement is far from clear.
What constituted Trump’s Asia Tour?
Objectives:
- Greater reciprocity in the commercial engagement with Asia
- Strengthening US alliances and partnerships in the region
- Solving North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme
Schedule:
- Trump is participating in two major regional summits
- Forum for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Vietnam
- East Asia Summit in the Philippines.
- He also had bilateral visits to Japan & South Korea.
- This was then followed by a bilateral visit to China, which was considered the most important aspect of the trip.
Tone:
- Most Asian leaders were seen trying please the American President during the recent visit by heaping elaborate praise.
- The China bilateral was particularly noticeable for its mutual flattery between Mr.Xi & Mr.Trump.
- However, while flattery certainly generates the right mood music, it is not enough to resolve structural problems.
What are the challenges?
- The difficulties in advancing the objectives on all the three fronts are immense.
- Trump’s exchanges with Xi are also emblematic of the new complexities driving Asian politics.
- USA has also been pressing for “fair” rather than “free trade” with Asia – which highlights the USAs trade friction with china.
- Notably, USA’s has a large trade deficit with China.
- Accommodating China’s rise without abandoning its long-standing allies and friends in the region is another major challenge.
How has Beijing responded?
- Economic - Beijing wrapping a package of commercial deals with American companies amounting to $250 billion.
- But many of these deals will take a long time to materialise as they are MoUs rather than commercial contracts.
- While this will give Mr.Trump some room to drop his hostile rhetoric against China, it does nothing to address USA’s massive trade deficit.
- Demands for more market access, technology transfer, cyber security and protecting intellectual property is expected to continue.
- Political - While the need for greater cooperation was stressed, there was no significant breakthrough on North Korea.
- Trump publicly reminded the need to stop arming, financing and trading with North Korea — most of which is from China.
- Mr.Xi insisted that there were enough avenues for China & USA to co-operate and grow mutually.
- The need to jointly promote peace and stability in Asia was also stressed.
- Notably, Trump had previously warned of selling advanced arms to its regional allies – an assertion of its primacy in Asia.
What lies ahead for India?
- The tension between USA’s traditional commitment to economic globalisation and Trump’s ‘America First’ policies is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.
- The rise of China and the turbulence in US domestic politics have created a climate of uncertainty.
- US and China will continue to jockey for political primacy in Asia.
- This situation has led the countries in the region to jockey for diversifying their security partnerships.
- In this context, managing its problems with China while simultaneously deepening ties with US and other key Asian partners is crucial for India.
Source: Indian Express
