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Ready to make good on Asian overtures

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The Washington Post

Published: November 9, 2009

WASHINGTON - Since taking office, President Obama has signaled that the United States wants to improve relations with the powerhouse nations of East Asia, and he'll put his personal imprint on that when he travels to the region for the first time this week.

The focus underlies the president's view that having influence in the region, especially as China grows as an international economic and military force, is needed to promote U.S. interests.

"We really see this - our engagement with East Asia - to be critical to our own future," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said.

The administration has committed to closer consultation with Japan and South Korea over North Korea in the hopes of salving what Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council's senior director for Asia, called "bruised feelings" in Tokyo and Seoul over previous U.S. failures to consult with its allies. And Obama is the first president in 16 years to enter office generally supporting the China policy of his predecessor, ensuring a previously lacking continuity.
Asian leaders welcome the new attention, especially from an American president who grew up in the Pacific region and spent years in Indonesia as a youth.

The problem is that the administration needs more than good intentions, said Douglas Paal, a former National Security Council official now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Paal and other analysts said that the most important issue is trade, as Asian nations have dropped barriers among themselves while the United States has failed to act.

"The business of Asia is business," said Evan Feigenbaum, a former senior State Department official now at the Council of Foreign Relations. "What you've got is an Asian challenge to Obama in the economic area that his predecessors didn't face. Whatever good things the administration is doing - and they are doing good things - there is no substitute for economic engagement."

OBAMA'S MISSION

President Barack Obama will leave for a four-nation tour of Asia after attending a memorial service at Fort Hood this week.

ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION MEETING: He planned his trip, which runs through Nov. 19, around the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore, but added stops in Japan, China and South Korea. The itinerary reflects the growing importance of East Asia - especially China - to everything from financing U.S. debt and powering the global economic recovery to climate change, disease control and containing nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.

U.S. BASE IN JAPAN: Japan's foreign minister said no deal on relocating U.S. troops on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa can be expected during Obama's visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve.

Washington and Tokyo agreed in 2006 that the Marine airfield in Futenma, a crowded city on Okinawa, would be relocated to another part of the island. But Japan's government changed after August elections, and Okinawans have pushed to move the base off the island entirely.

MYANMAR: Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

The Nov. 15 meeting between Obama and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will take place on the sidelines of an annual summit in Singapore. The talks are to be the highest-level contact between Myanmar and the United States in decades.

The Associated Press

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