Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and refusal to engage in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with ASEAN and five other regional states were universally interpreted across the region as tantamount to wholesale American economic withdrawal. Diplomatically, the Trump administration could not even be bothered to turn up at presidential-level major regional summits, including APEC and the East Asian Summit, over several years. This has left a lasting negative legacy in the region that the Biden administration has yet to turn
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