The United States said here on Thursday that it wasn’t
troubled by Indonesia’s growing ties with China, as the relations could develop
side-by-side with Southeast Asia’s largest economy’s strengthening partnership
with the US.
US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot
Marciel said the US did not feel threatened by China’s rising influence in
Southeast Asia, and that the US would continually do “what we’re supposed to be
doing”.
He added that Indonesia was an
independent country that could opt to simultaneously strengthen and expand its
ties with both the US and China. “China having better relations with Indonesia
doesn’t mean the US also cannot have better relations with Indonesia. It’s not
quite that zero-sum thing; I don’t think it’s a return to the Cold War,”
Marciel said during his visit to The Jakarta Post premises.
“Our relationship with China is
so much deeper and broader than the old US-Soviet Union relationship, [and
includes] tremendous trade and other things. It’s a very different
relationship, and I think everybody in Washington recognizes this.”
In the wake of a flurry of news
reports on its competition with China for influence in Southeast Asia, the US
has aggressively forged ties with Southeast Asia in the economic and political
fields, with the world’s largest economy pushing the region to accept the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral free-trade agreement that aims
to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, while US
President Barack Obama announced in mid November the US plan to deploy 2,500
marines to the Australian city of Darwin.
But many say the TPP aims to
exclude China from the regional cooperation. The TPP has been seen as a challenge
to the existing Asean-led cooperation. Indonesia has shown reluctance to join
the TPP, which has been joined by four Asean member states — Singapore,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
The US base in Darwin is also
seen as a move to counterbalance China’s growing influence in the region.
Marciel, however, dismissed the notion, saying the so-called rivalry was
“overstated”.
“You can’t say that there is no
competition; that would be silly to say … but about this talk of the US and
China in Southeast Asia, I have my own view that it is overstated.”
The ambassador added that the
Darwin plan was “not nearly as big of a deal” as a lot of people seemed to
think, saying the number of US marines to be deployed there was “pretty small”.
He said the US would work with the Australian authorities to allow maximum
transparency about the base. “Then people can come and see and maybe feel more
relaxed about it.”
Erwida Maulia
The Jakarta Post
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