US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to make Asia her first overseas destination since taking office is not just an act of symbolism, it is also fraught with important policy implications... The new US focus on Asia is not without significant challenges. The foremost relates to the implications of the global financial crisis. The past year has seen that while Asia is not immune to the crisis, this is clearly not an ‘Asian crisis’ or an ‘Asian contagion’. Asia is much more a part of the solution than the problem. Unlike the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which started in Thailand and remained confined to Asia, the financial meltdown in 2008 begun in the US and engulfed Asian nations, some more so than others. And there are indications that Asians victims of the contagion may be doing better than the West, and better than they did during the 1997 ‘Asian’ financial crisis. Ironically, as some Asian commentators have pointed out, by learning the lessons of the 1997 crisis, lessons which the West had forgot to practice itself. Moreover, Asia is moving to multilateralise the system of bilateral currency swaps, with a total commitment of 120 billion US dollars. There is some irony in this, as Washington had in the past vetoed the idea of an Asian Monetary Fund mooted by Japan in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, not to mention its earlier opposition to Malaysian-proposed East Asian Economic Caucus mooted by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
One ostensible purpose of Obama’s Asia policy is to reaffirm the US alliance relationships in Asia. In the past, this would have meant its security ties with Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines and Australia. But the US alliance relationships in the region are in a state of flux. Some allies are becoming more important than others and new strategic relationships are being forged by passing traditional alliances. Clinton’s visit to Indonesia was largely a symbolic but fitting recognition of the progress achieved by the largest Muslim nation and the largest Muslim democracy in the world. Indonesia has defied dire predictions by Western analysts (and some Asian neighbours like Singapore) not that long ago about an imminent collapse to consolidate its democracy, find a peaceful settlement to the Aceh separatist movement, but also manage its economy creditably. The visit comes in the wake of a steady revival of US-Indonesian security relations. Yet, the US courting of Jakarta is likely to cause discomfort in its traditional treaty allies, Philippines and Thailand, both of which earned ‘Major Non-NATO Partner’ status for their backing of the Bush administration’s war against Iraq…
The Obama administration has reaffirmed its security ties with Japan. Not only was Japan the first stop in Clinton’s trip, but Japanese prime minister Taro Aso, despite his below 10% popularity and facing the distinct prospect of leading the LDP to electoral defeat for only the second time in history, also secured the distinction of being the first foreign leader to meet Obama in the White House. Yet, the Obama administration has also reaffirmed the importance of US-China ties, dubbing it as the most important bilateral relationship in the world. To be sure, the Obama administration inherited a healthy relationship with China from its predecessor, but from preliminary indications, it seems to be intent on placing its relationship with China on a new footing without appearing to neglect Japan. This requires an extremely delicate balancing act, especially in view of emerging suspicions in Tokyo about closer Sino-US relationship.
Read more at: http://www.asiapacific.ca/files/Bulletins/bulletin305.pdf
