Part 2/11:
During his visit to Southeast Asia, former President Donald Trump held multiple summits with regional leaders, including a notable one-on-one with Chinese President Xi Jinping. These meetings highlight an ongoing realignment in U.S. foreign trade policy and diplomacy. Trump’s approach was marked by rhetorical assertiveness—threatening tariffs that occasionally reached 100%—and concrete yet modest agreements that appear to have limited immediate impact.
Trump’s negotiations with countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia were characterized by a series of loosely defined deals. These agreements were often announced by Trump himself but lacked formal text or comprehensive public transparency, underscoring their tentative nature.