President Donald Trump wrapped up his extensive tour of Asia in the Philippines by calling it a tremendous amount of work on trade. What he got from his Asia Tour will be reviewed and analyzed by the American media, opponents, and prosecutors later, but generally people are eager to know about the main purpose of the tour i.e. impact of the US intimidation on North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un. As Donald Trump had repeated his will very fiercely before his departure. It is another thing if Trump has a hidden agenda or future plan for the dictator, otherwise jibe war - old, short and fat - from both sides has disclosed the reality of the US impact on North Korea.

Behind the media coverage

Another incident, outside of the primary media coverage, was a protest against Trump’s visit in the Philippines from the left wing of the country carrying placards of “Dump Trump” and “Down with US Imperialism.” Protesters said: “Trump is here to push for unfair treaties between both the countries.” The protesters burnt an effigy of Trump too and shouted to leave the country.

Asia-Pacific labeled as Indo-Pacific

The results of the tour will be seen in the future but one thing is very clear that America wants to make a strong figure against China in the region. It is clear from the term Trump used in his visit i.e. “Indo-Pacific” instead of “Asia-Pacific” as generally used by Barack Obama earlier.

It is very evident that China is on the way to emerge as a super economic power in the world. India is the only country in the region to oppose China’s ambitious plans like one belt one road (OROB) project. In the recent stand-off in Doklam, India didn’t compromise with its interests. The Trump’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during ASEAN summit and statements from both sides to make the relations deeper and comprehensive clear the US vision to de-emphasize China’s influence in the region.

The time will decide the future of OROB, China-Pakistan corridor and India’s all efforts to pushback China, but Indian media rejoiced the Trumps’s Asia tour and Trump-Modi meeting at ASEAN.

The Indian media titled it as “The end of China’s coercion in Manila,” “Master plan to smite China,” and “China has objection on ‘Indo-Pacific’ phrase.” These headlines are enough to describe what India got from Trump’s visit.

President Donald Trump didn’t take clear stand on Asia’s two major issue, South China Sea and North Korea, although he proposed to play a role of moderator. Unlike in the past, America’s predominancy was somewhat missing in this tour, as seen in the APEC summit where Donald Trump and Xi Jinping went along their separate ways in their speeches. Trump called for America-first-like theory while Xi’s stress was on globalization.
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