JAKARTA—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to tour parts of Asia over the coming week in what could be one of the Obama administration's last chances to address escalating territorial disputes across the region ahead of November elections.
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| Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is greeted on arrival at Rarotonga International Airport on the Cook Islands where she started her trip through the Asia-Pacific region. |
Her visit, say State Department officials, is to further underline the U.S. commitment to stability in the Asia-Pacific as the U.S. untangles itself from commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"She is demonstrating that the U.S. is engaging in the region in a very practical way, by showing up [for multilateral meetings], contributing, listening and adopting soft initiatives," like aid programs across Asia, said Carlyle Thayer, an Asian security expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
For a year, the administration has been cranking up U.S. influence in the region, often to China's chagrin. President Obama last year announced U.S. Marines would begin regularly working out of a base in Australia, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this year that the U.S. Navy would shift the majority of its ships to Asia. The administration also is seeking bases to build missile defenses in Asia, primarily as a bulwark against North Korea.
Mr. Panetta is expected to return to the region again in the near future, to reassert U.S. goals and priorities. However, the effort has not always delivered results sought by the administration.
Beijing accuses the U.S. of increased meddling in the region. Chinese officials and state media object to what they describe as attempts by the U.S. to inflame territorial disputes between China and its neighbors as a means to contain China's regional influence. The U.S., on the other hand, has criticized recent Chinese moves as likely to further escalate tension in the South China Sea.
Sensitivities over China's disagreements with Japan over disputed island claims are also still raw. Anti-Japanese protests erupted in some Chinese cities in recent weeks. State media in recent days have questioned Mrs. Clinton's visit to the region.
"It is true that one objective of Clinton's tour is to contain China's increasing influence, but the core of U.S. strategy is to defend its dominance and hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region," read a Wednesday commentary by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
When Secretary Clinton was in the region last in July, tempers flared and talks broke down during a major Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia. The 10 members of the economic bloc failed to agree on how to respond to China's claims on parts of the South China Sea that are also claimed by several Asean members.
With the Philippines demanding a strongly worded declaration of the group's concerns, and Cambodia resisting any wording that would embarrass China, Asean members couldn't agree on language for a joint statement at the end of the meeting. It was the first time in the association's 45-year history that it was unable to issue a joint communiqué.
The failed talks in Phnom Penh were also a setback for the U.S., analysts said, because it has been trying to build up Asean as a unified front against expanding Chinese influence in the region.
Territorial disputes in other parts of Asia have also been flaring up. Last month Japan raised the prospect of taking a dispute with South Korea over possession of a group of islets to an international court after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited them. The islets known as Dokdo in South Korea, Takeshima in Japan and Liancourt Rocks in the U.S. and elsewhere are part of a long-simmering territorial dispute. Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea after Mr. Lee's visit.
Japan has disputes with other neighbors as well. It controls a set of islands known as Senkaku, also claimed by China and Taiwan; they are known as Diaoyu in Chinese. Japan also claims Russian-controlled islands known in Russia as the southern Kurils; Japan calls them the Northern Territories.
"I think one of the messages that we seek to carry on this trip is that it is absolutely essential that cooler heads prevail in every capital, and that great care be taken on these issues, and that, in fact, all of the—these complex territorial matters have existed for decades," said a senior State Department official in Washington this week. "They have been managed generally effectively for decades, and during this period we've seen some of the most manifest Asian prosperity."
Mrs. Clinton arrived Thursday in the Cook Islands, where she is attending an annual gathering of officials from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific as part of her six-nation tour.
Her first stop next week will be in Indonesia where she is scheduled to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as well as Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. Bolstered by its strong economic growth and stable democracy, Indonesia has increasingly played a leading role in Southeast Asia and Asean. This is a trend that the U.S. wants to encourage, analysts say. After the troubled talks in Cambodia, Mr. Natalegawa took it upon himself to visit all of the region's leaders to try to encourage cooperation.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton will be in China. Visible progress on strategic issues between the two countries is unlikely during her closely watched visit there, analysts say, given both the U.S. election and China's once-a-decade leadership change. China's transition, set to begin this fall, makes officials unlikely to make major decisions given political sensitivities.
Diplomats are already saying it will be difficult to win Chinese leaders' cooperation on South China Sea issues at the next Asean summit in Phnom Penh in November.
While a major breakthrough isn't expected, the U.S. may seek Chinese cooperation to at least ensure the South China Sea dispute is a topic of discussion. Such a move would give China room to continue to press its claim of sovereignty over the region but would likely be viewed as a victory for regional claimants who have pushed to negotiate territorial disputes in multilateral forums. China has said negotiations should be between Beijing and individual countries.
U.S. officials and Chinese political analysts say both sides are focused simply on maintaining the relationship's status quo during a period of potential political volatility in both countries.
Mrs. Clinton will arrive in Beijing as strategic ties between the U.S. and China have been strained.
On Aug. 3, the State Department released a statement criticizing Beijing's decision to elevate the administrative status of a place called Sansha City, which China says will administer the disputed territories it claims in the South China Sea, as well as its plan to establish a new military garrison there.
China's Foreign Ministry responded with what analysts and diplomats described as an unusually harsh response. The statement said people must "question the true intention of the U.S. side" and said Washington's actions weren't conducive to regional stability.
Mrs. Clinton's visit to the Cook Islands is also being closely watched in China. China has backed development projects throughout the South Pacific, and in recent years has been involved in building a police headquarters and a courthouse in the Cook Islands, according to analysts and local media.
"I think the secretary intends very clearly to underscore our continuing interest in maintaining a strong, positive relationship" between the U.S. and China, said the senior State Department official. "We recognize how critically important that is, and one of the challenges before us is to demonstrate how we deal with areas in which we have differing perceptions and where we face challenging issues on the ground, or in this case in the water."
After China, Secretary Clinton is scheduled to visit East Timor and then Brunei and her final stop will be Vladivostok for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries.
WSJ
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