Macroscope | To Trump, Asean and Apec are simply platforms for his own agenda
Leaders of superpowers should not use regional multilateral summits to advance their own interests, overshadowing the vital work of other nations
That kind of showmanship may impress people at home and possibly win more political support, but it hijacks the need for genuine diplomacy and international cooperation in both an economic and political sense.
Two cases in point are the most recent summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in South Korea. These organisations and the meetings they hold are supposed to be concerned primarily with regional cooperation and integration. Instead, they became platforms for great power politics.
Such gatherings, ostensibly meant to prioritise matters of common interest, are ultimately eclipsed when they become the setting for leaders seeking to resolve bilateral disputes between nations that are not even members of the group in some cases.