Episode confirms shift in US behaviour under Trump: Expert

ly worded remarks that did not mention Washington or US President Donald Trump by name.

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Political scientist Aries Arugay, a visiting senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, said the Venezuela episode was significant for Asia because it appeared to confirm a shift in US behaviour under Mr Trump.

“The US has traditionally presented itself as a status quo power that upholds the rules-based international order,’ he said. “What we are seeing under Trump 2.0 is much less interest in maintaining that order.”

“That is bad news for us in Asia,” he added, noting that countries such as the Philippines, Japan and South Korea have relied on the US as a stabiliser against China’s hegemonic behaviour. “Our precarity just got intensified.”

Dr Tosh Minohara, chair of Kobe-based think-tank Research Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs, said Washington’s action indicates that the rule of law, which “used to be a big American thing”, is “malleable” under Mr Trump.

“It proves the point that since the US is powerful, it gets to set the rules,” he said. “But what it does not realise is that this puts off a lot of countries and fuels anti-American resentment that manifests itself in a way that is not readily apparent.”