[Text/Observer Network Liu Chenghui] On November 20th, the 27th Informal Leadership Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was held by video. Trump, who is trapped in the quagmire of the domestic election campaign, participated in the conference for the first time in three years. Despite this, he still did not forget to make a fuss about the background of the video conference, using the beige background with the presidential seal on his own. Foreign media believe that Trump's participation in the meeting and his special details are only for domestic political needs, showing that he is still the President of the United States, "not substantive."
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According to Agence France-Presse on the 20th, all the leaders who attended the meeting used the official background-the blue-bottomed Gamalasia Prime Minister's Office. But Trump is an exception. He uses a beige background with the presidential seal, which makes him particularly "eye-catching" in the pictures of many leaders. According to a source who arranged for Trump's participation, Trump himself refused to use official background.
However, the Observer Network noticed that Trump once used a formal background, but most of the time he still used his own background.
In some pictures, Trump used the official background
Reuters Malaysia correspondent Rozanna Latiff also noticed that Trump did not use the APEC official background. Moreover, the state-run Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM) from time to time covered a small window of sign language translation on Trump's position.
Although the United States is still the most severely affected country in the world, according to the statement issued by the White House after the meeting, Trump still emphasized the leadership of the United States in the field of global health at the meeting, including "the United States has successfully developed a safe Effective new crown vaccine".
The summit held this year was attended by leaders of 21 countries including China and the United States. Reuters said this is Trump's first participation in an APEC summit in three years. In 2017, Trump participated in the APEC summit in Vietnam for the first time after taking office as US President. In 2018, he reassigned Pence to attend. In 2019, the APEC summit was cancelled due to anti-government demonstrations in Chile, the host country.
Trump's participation in this meeting is also the first time Trump has appeared at an international conference since the presidential election. Last week, Trump also missed the ASEAN summit.
Since this month, Trump, who has been trapped in the domestic election quagmire, has been clamoring "election fraud" and refused to admit "bow" to the bureau while busy handling election lawsuits. At this time, he attended the meeting again after three years, which aroused widespread concern from the outside world.
"Trump's participation in the conference is surprising." The American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said, because Trump is currently busy in a "lawsuit" with Biden. "The Diplomat" magazine described that after being defeated by Biden in this year's presidential election, Trump is doing "Don Quixote-like efforts" in an attempt to overturn the election results. At such a moment, Trump's choice to participate in this meeting can be regarded as "his last glory as the President of the United States on the international stage."
Singapore Institute of International Affairs analyst Oh Ei Sun told Agence France-Presse that the purpose of Trump's participation is to show himself as a "president" on the global stage.
"Of course Trump will use this opportunity to show his status as president in order to gain domestic political advantage." Hu Yishan said.
Bloomberg report screenshot
Bloomberg said that countries in this region hope that the United States can regain multilateral participation in international affairs after Trump leaves office. However, some scholars pointed out that although Trump will attend the meeting again after many years, the substantive significance is actually not great. Yongwook Ryu, assistant professor of international relations at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, analyzed that due to Trump’s lack of interest in multilateral institutions, his attendance was “more symbolic rather than substantive.”
Liu Yongyu said that Trump’s speech at the meeting may not be taken seriously by leaders of other APEC member states, but leaders of these countries will also avoid commenting on domestic politics in the United States.
Like Hu Yishan, Liu Yongyu also believes that Trump's move was to send a clear message that he is still the "president and commander" of the United States and that he "has not lost the election." Therefore, from this perspective, Trump’s participation in the US’s domestic political goals is more important than the real significance of regional and global trade.
"The Diplomat" magazine pointed out that although the Trump administration had previously announced that Southeast Asia is a core part of the United States’ free and open “Indo-Pacific strategy”, Trump’s absence from meetings for several years has exacerbated some countries’ attitudes towards the United States as a region. Concerns about the reliability of long-term partners. The Japan Times also stated that Trump has already received criticism from his allies for “sniffing” important meetings in the Asia-Pacific region.
Regardless of the purpose of Trump's participation in the meeting, he finally "takes time" to show up.
The United States was originally scheduled to host the G7 summit this year, but it was cancelled due to the epidemic, and there is still no clear progress. According to German media, Trump has revealed that he intends to host this year's G7 summit "in a calmer atmosphere", but now it seems "a distant future." According to three U.S. diplomats, Trump has not yet contacted the outside world about the organization of G7, and the reorganization of the G7 summit did not appear on the Trump team’s schedule. Although it is still possible to hold an online meeting, the parties have not yet started any preparations for any form of joint declaration, and this process usually takes several months.
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