Obama's visit forges a new regional multilateralism with new rules:
analysts
Increasingly, as the United
States follows through on its pivot towards Asia, it brings Washington's
interests to the gates of Beijing - with Asean in the middle.
That much was evident this week
as the Asean 10 gathered with other regional and international leaders for the
annual East Asia Summit (EAS).
US President Barack Obama, fresh
from his electoral triumph, and with an economy showing stirrings of life, was
back in a region where many economies were taking a pause or had substantially
slowed.
China, the world's No. 2 economy
and Asia's biggest, is struggling to grow at 8 per cent, a far cry from its
double-digit expansion days. Japan is tipping into recession and India, Asia's
No. 3 economy, is also sputtering.
All the more important then, that
disputes over territory and control should not stand in the way of trade and
investments critical to the region.
Obama may have received a hero's
welcome in Myanmar, but in Cambodia, closely linked to China, the reception was
muted.
After bonhomie-laced visits to
Thailand and Myanmar, the US leader landed in Phnom Penh late on Monday to
attend a dinner kicking off the summit.
He found banners outside the
venue of the Asean and East Asia Summit welcoming China's Premier Wen Jiaobao
and extolling the friendship between China and Cambodia. Unlike in Myanmar,
nobody lined the streets to greet him.
The EAS brings together the 10
Asean members and eight others, including the US, China, India and Japan. It
also includes Russia but Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been in surgery and
was unable to attend.
There was certainly no lack of
contentious issues.
Obama and Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda discussed Tokyo's dispute with Beijing over the Senkaku islands,
which China calls the Diaoyu islands.
And in a bilateral meeting, which
a US official later called "tense", the US President put Cambodian
Prime Minister Hun Sen - chair of the summit - on the defensive. Obama cited
Myanmar as an example of a country that was improving its human rights record.
He brought up the imprisonment of a radio broadcaster as one example of hurdles
to the US-Cambodia relationship.
Obama was criticised by the
opposition at home for visiting Southeast Asia during a looming fiscal crisis
in the US. But he was obliged to come to the summit. And visiting Cambodia
without dropping by Thailand - America's oldest ally in the region - would have
been an insult to Bangkok.
The President's trip to Myanmar
was seen as a reward for the reforms unleashed by President Thein Sein which,
despite residual scepticism, now have bipartisan support in Washington.
The trip has succeeded in
cementing Southeast Asia on Washington's geopolitical map and, in effect, has
set up a "geopolitical ring around China", wrote Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, director of the Bangkok-based Institute for International and
Strategic Studies, in a Monday commentary.
But he added: "At the same
time, the US has engaged China in a nuanced and mutually beneficial fashion on
trade and investment, providing space for Beijing to operate under multilateral
rules and institutions."
Pessimists may view the US
efforts as an attempt to contain China, he wrote, but optimists see it as a new
regional multilateralism with new rules.
Indeed, at their bilateral
meeting, President Obama and Premier Wen were conciliatory.
Obama said Washington and Beijing
must work together to "establish clear rules of the road" for trade
and investment.
Unlike his criticism of Hun Sen,
he did not accuse China of violating trade rules - a topic that had figured in
the recent presidential election campaign, with Obama's rival, Republican Mitt
Romney, making a point of saying he would be tough on China.
Obama reportedly told Wen that he
was committed to working with China and committed to working with Asia. Wen, in
turn, mentioned "differences and disagreements" between them but said
these could be resolved through trade and investment.
And while Chinese delegates were
firm on Beijing's position on the South China Sea, Premier Wen said he did not
want to spread tension in the region.
For some, the winner of the fight
for regional influence is already clear.
"The Americans are very good
at symbolism and gestures, but when it comes to putting money on the table,
they can't match them [China] anymore," Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee
Kuan Yew Institute of Public Policy, told The Straits Times over the phone.
Still, he noted, Asean can
benefit from US-China competition. "During the Cold War, Asean was
relevant. After that, it became strategically irrelevant and the Americans
dropped the ball. Now, the Americans are playing the game."
Nirmal Ghosh
Business & Investment Opportunities
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