Countries are calculating that they cannot count on the Trump administration’s America to keep its word and its international commitments, three visiting foreign policy professors said here yesterday.

No major international institution has actually ruptured nor a trade war broken out, but the harm done is more subtle, they said at the event organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

International affairs professor Michael E. Brown of the George Washington University said: “The thing that cannot be undone is that we have elected a president who cannot be counted to follow through on these sacred, solemn, strategic commitments.”

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies dean Vali Nasr said once other countries sense that the United States is not completely committed, countries will begin to follow Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s path.

In Asia, countries that want America in the region as a counterbalance to China are now hedging their bets, said Macquarie University security studies professor Bates Gill.

Mr Trump’s marathon visit to China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam last year has been cited as a sign that America remains committed to the region.

Dialogue moderator and veteran diplomat Ong Keng Yong also pointed out that the US stock market is doing well despite Mr Trump’s pronouncements on free trade.

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