Global IssuesPOLITICS: Clinton Heralds Deeper U.S. Ties with South-east Asia
The United States government is attempting to deepen its ties with South-east Asia this week when Washington finally throws its weight behind a regional peace and security treaty.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-east Asia (TAC) when she attends a regional security forum being held in Thailand’s resort-island of Phuket.
The ASEAN Regional Forum, from Jul. 22-23, is part of the high-level meetings that will bring together foreign ministers of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member regional bloc, and their dialogue partners.
ASEAN, which was formed in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of communism in the region, includes Brunei, Burma (also known as Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The 42-year-old bloc’s partners who have already signed the TAC range from China, Japan, and South Korea to India, Australia, Russia and North Korea.
The TAC, which came into force in June 1976, has been a cornerstone of ASEAN’s policy to promote peace and stability in a region that had, since the 1960s, been torn apart by wars, military occupation and civil strife.
Washington’s decision to finally come on board means that Canada is the only country among those who attend the ARF that is not part of the TAC, which was opened for non-South-east Asian countries to join in 1987.
'This is a significant move. It means that the United States is serious about ASEAN; it is serious about peace and security in ASEAN,' Vitavas Srivihok, director-general of ASEAN affairs at the Thai foreign ministry, told IPS. 'The TAC is one of the most important documents in ASEAN.'
But that is not all Clinton will be doing to signal the interest U.S. president Barak Obama has for this region, signifying the direction of his administration’s foreign policy. Washington’s top diplomat is expected to pave the way for closer ties with countries that share the Mekong River, once a pivotal waterway during the U.S. war in Indo-China.
'The United States has asked Thailand to facilitate a meeting of the countries in the Mekong River basin,' says Vitavas. 'Secretary of State Clinton will meet the foreign ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.'
On the agenda are talks on transnational issues, resource management and water management, he confirmed. 'This is the first time that they (U.S. government) are going to meet with these four countries to (discuss) the Mekong River.'
The Obama administration’s interest in the region’s largest body of water has also been echoed in another centre of power in Washington. Last week, the Mekong River featured in discussion at an U.S. Senate hearing.
These moves will add to what Washington has already done to be an important player in a region that is taking on new diplomatic significance as it finds itself mid-way between the two emerging Asian giants, China and India.
'The United States was the first country to appoint an ambassador to ASEAN,' says Rodolfo Severino, former secretary-general of ASEAN from 1998-2002. 'The Obama administration is moving this relationship a step forward (by signing the TAC).'
But Severino questions the view maintained by some analysts that Washington took its eye off South-east Asia during the previous George W. Bush administration, where these was more emphasis on prosecuting the ‘war on terror.’ Concerns about White House losing interest in ASEAN were spawned after Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleeza Rice, skipping two ARFs.
'The Bush administration paid more attention to ASEAN than previous administrations,' Severino, a former Filipino diplomat, said during a telephone interview from Singapore. 'President Bush met with leaders of ASEAN during the last two APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summits. And ASEAN’s (senior ministry officials) were given opportunities to meet with the secretary of state.'
The Obama administration signalled its strong interests in South-east Asia a month after it took office by having Clinton visit the region’s largest country, Indonesia, as her first trip abroad.
'I decided I wanted to come to Asia on my first trip abroad because we concluded in the last several years we hadn’t paid enough attention to many parts of Asia,' the AFP news agency reported Clinton as having said in the country where Obama had spent some of his childhood years. 'Our interests aren’t just focused on China.'
Clinton echoed those views during a recent speech at the Council of Foreign Relations. 'We have started by reinvigorating our bedrock alliances, which did fray in recent years,' she said, according to the AP news agency. 'We are both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-Pacific nation.'
Engagement with ASEAN also heralds the Obama administration’s interest in diplomacy at a multilateral level than the narrower bilateral approach. 'The current U.S. administration understands that engagement at a multilateral level is a time process,' says Robert Fitts, a former U.S. diplomat who has served in three South-east Asian capitals.
'There is a more sophisticated understanding in Washington to start a process, build confidence, not just expect results,' Fitts said in an interview. 'They understand there is a multilateral dimension is South-east Asia; in the past they were more interested in bilaterals.'
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service