MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Perhaps the single outcome referencing Asia, though indirectly, was Trump’s meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The two leaders jointly unveiled the trade deal they had outlined earlier in Washington, but in addition, Trump pledged to safeguard AUKUS, despite the announcement of the Pentagon’s review of the deal.
The deal with the United Kingdom represents an outlying concession to Trump’s demands for tariffs. Not only did the United Kingdom concede a 10 per cent tariff, but it also agreed to swallow the 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium pending improvements in some vaguely defined future.
The United Kingdom agreed to cooperate in a game of prisoner’s dilemma, exposing all the other “prisoners” to a protectionist tariff baseline that other countries may be compelled to meet.
There was no time or room to reach a broader consensus on security to address the challenges posed by China and Russia. Issues like securing supply chains and critical mineral stockpiles were afforded little time in the discussion.
Newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung never had the chance to meet Trump, while Japan made no progress in securing an economic security arrangement with the United States. Nikkei concluded that the Japanese Prime Minister had come away “empty-handed”. Trump, for his part, lamented the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, blaming former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The opportunity to showcase the joint efforts of US allies to meet the security challenge – and in doing so, reinforce the framework of the global economy – slipped away, much like Trump himself. The summit ended without a comprehensive joint statement. Instead, the Canadian host had to make do with a Chair’s Statement.
The summit ended with six joint statements. The one on critical minerals failed to move much beyond the framework agreed to in 2023, despite the urgency of China’s recent retaliatory imposition of export controls.
Worthy but barely actionable initiatives on quantum computing and artificial intelligence served to dress up the relevance of the meeting, alongside a statement on combating wildfires – a topic particularly relevant to Canada and the province in which the summit was held.
