The United States is “indispensable” to the world order and its newest leader should maintain that status, outgoing President Barack Obama said on Sunday. The US has the ability to uphold “international norms and rules” and remains vital to global security, Obama said during a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, according to AFP.
The outgoing president said that even though Washington had not been able to always fulfill its ideals, history had provided several warnings for those imagining a revised global order. “We had two world wars in a span of 30 years,” Obama said. “In the second one, 60 million people were killed. Not half a million, not a million but 60 million. Entire continents in rubble.”
Obama also defended the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which his successor Donald Trump has called a “terrible deal” for the US and American jobs. Not pushing the deal forward would undermine the US’ ability to “shape the rules of global trade”, Obama said, according to Reuters. The APEC also released a statement at the end of its summit on the issue of free trade, vowing to “fight against all forms of protectionism”.
During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to pull the US out of the TPP deal and impose tariffs on countries such as China and Mexico if he was elected. While Obama has promised to work with Trump to ensure a smooth transition between his and the incoming president’s administrations, he has also urged the president-elect to focus on issues such as Washington’s relationship with Russia.
Trump won the US presidential elections on November 8 against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state, however, won in the popular vote, while Trump secured more than the requisite 270 electoral college votes.
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