By , The Atlantic
The U.S. is making a
diplomatic push into China's backyard.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton is likely to receive a warm welcome in a new series of high-level
visits to Southeast Asian states and regional bodies this week. From Vietnam,
where she is signing agreements on education and business today, to tomorrow's
meeting in Cambodia of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations [ASEAN], Clinton will continue the Obama administration's intensified
diplomacy in a neighborhood where China has been the dominant influence.
The Obama administration has made
a clear choice to re-engage with the countries of Southeast Asia during the
past three years, primarily on the Southeast Asians' terms. Recognizing that
Southeast Asian economic integration, and Asian integration overall, is
proceeding with or without the United States, the administration has chosen to
try to play a more central role in this process to avoid integration being
dominated by China. This follows a period during the Bush administration in
which ASEAN and its partners inked free trade deals with China, launched a free
trade area within ASEAN, and made progress toward trade deals with Japan,
India, and other actors. With the WTO round stalled and the West lurching into
economic meltdown in 2008, the focus of trade progress shifted to East Asia,
with ASEAN at the center.
The White House has vowed to join
the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Though actually joining is a long shot, given
the difficulty of passing trade deals in Congress, it has significantly
increased its assistance to the countries of the Mekong River basin in mainland
Southeast Asia, and it has appointed an ambassador to the ASEAN Secretariat in
Jakarta. This demonstrates to Southeast Asian nations that the United States
places the same type of priority on its relationship with them as it does with
other important regional actors like South Korea or India.
What's more, U.S. officials
increasingly have been "showing up" in Southeast Asia for important
meetings and summits, giving the region the face time that it so desperately
craves. The fact that Clinton and other top officials have repeatedly traveled
to the region also has helped demonstrate Washington's commitment to its treaty
allies and partners in the region (like Thailand, the Philippines, and
Singapore) who have been challenged by the dispute over the South China Sea. To
a large extent, this strategy has worked, in part because it also has coincided
with increasingly aggressive diplomacy in the region by China, which has
seriously alienated many countries in the region.
Yet while many nations have
welcomed the renewed U.S. interest in the region, ASEAN remains divided about
how to handle both the United States and China, and how to enunciate a vision
for future Asian integration that will accommodate both major powers. Still
operating by its traditional consensus mindset, ASEAN has found it difficult to
find unity on the most pressing issues facing its members, such as the dispute
over the South China Sea, which is why members like the Philippines and Vietnam
have turned to the United States for greater support (and arms).
This article originally
appeared at CFR.org,
an Atlantic partner site.
Courtesy: The
Atlantic, Jul 11 2012
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