Play for Asia brings increased attention

Economics pushing US and EU to refocus their world view, but there is a military subplot

Two summits in Asia this month have highlighted the extent to which Western countries have switched their foreign policy and trade focus to Asia as they seek to drive out economic blues.

In this game of changing roles, the US and Europe are the key players, but it is Washington that is in the spotlight with its so-called Asian pivot, observers say. However, the US pledge to put more emphasis on economic cooperation in the region does not square with its increasing military presence and its continued policy of trying to "contain" China, they say.

US President Barack Obama returned to Washington on Nov 21 after his first foreign trip following his re-election, during which he visited three Southeast Asian countries and addressed the ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit.

In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told him her country would join the US-led free-trade agreement Trans-Pacific Partnership, and he told reporters that the two countries are deepening bilateral security cooperation.

"We're going to improve the ability of our militaries to operate together," he said.

In a six-hour visit to Myanmar, Obama met President Thein Sein and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a posture strengthening ties with the country, which has a border with China.

An Obama aide said that during the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Nov 20, the president raised concerns about the recent territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

With a financial crisis looming at home and with turmoil in the Middle East, Obama's three-day tour was "a validation of Asia's strategic importance as the US refocuses its foreign policy to counter China's clout", Julie Pace of Associated Press said.

Fu Mengzi, a researcher on Sino-US relations at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the Asia-Pacific region now boasts the most dynamic economies, and Washington's economic attention to it is part of the Asia pivot policy and "rebalancing" in the region.

The complex US-China relationship has made trade a central part of the strategy as the Obama administration "tries to build an economic bloc that would virtually encircle China with US economic allies", Howard Schneider of The Washington Post said.

Fu says: "Beijing welcomes Washington's constructive role in the Asia-Pacific, yet it remains wary of Washington's frequent military involvement and deployment of armed forces in the region."

Last month Bangkok confirmed that Washington plans to invite Myanmar to join the annual Cobra Gold drills as an observer. Cobra Gold is a US exercise in the Asia-Pacific region involving Thailand and other countries for field training.

Meng Xiangqing, deputy director of the Strategic Research Institute at the National Defense University of the PLA, says Washington is enhancing leadership in the region by holding more military drills and lobbying countries including Thailand to buy arms.

"Washington's effort for more arms orders from Bangkok, even with discounts, was behind Obama's open talk of further US-Thai military cooperation, as Washington is going through financially hard times and is keen to deploy more advanced weapons to the region," Meng says.

On Nov 17, before Obama left for Thailand, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would strengthen its economic engagement in the Asia-Pacific region in addition to the strategic and security dimensions of the Asian pivot policy.

Emerging powers are putting their economies at the center of their foreign policies, she said in a lecture in Singapore. So to maintain the strategic leadership of the US in the region, Washington is strengthening its economic leadership.

The US has made gains from its previous Asian pivot steps, such as its enhanced control over its alliances including Japan, yet its push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership have shown little major progress economically, says Wang Yusheng, a veteran Chinese diplomat and a former Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation official.

"Washington is striving not to be marginalized in the context of rapid developments of various free-trade pacts in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is continuing to look for predominance in the economic field," Wang says.

Recent Asian summits also underline the European Union's desire to be more involved in the region.

For several years the EU has sought to be accepted as an observer at the East Asia Summit, which includes leaders of 16 countries in East Asia, the US and Russia. Those attempts have failed, but the EU has still not given up trying.

"We believe it is crucial for us to follow the East Asia Summit's development closely, and we intend to become an observer," said the former European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner at an EU-Japan joint seminar.

The EU's increasing interest in Asia was also illustrated at the ninth Asia-Europe Meeting early this month. The biennial meeting between Asia and Europe accepted two more European countries, Switzerland and Norway, expanding its membership to 51.

During the summit, the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, and the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, emphasized strong EU-Asia trade relations, with a focus on sustainable development, climate change and promotion of multilateral engagement.

Speaking at the summit, the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, insisted that Europe should be viewed as a region undergoing transformation, and that reforms have been put in place.

The Belgian newspaper New Europe said that as Europe seeks to enlarge its global profile, there is recognition that the Asia-Europe Meeting provides an important platform for advancing the Asia-Europe relationship, forging new strategic alliances and repairing partnerships that have fallen on difficult times.

Chen Fengying, a researcher on global economics at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, says: "Europe plays a leading role in many technologies that can benefit many Asian countries, so the cooperation has benefits for both parties."

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn and zhouwa@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/23/2012 page3)