Obama To ‘Revive’ U.S. Prestige in Asia
By Stephen Collinson
Agence France Presse
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama leaves on his debut presidential tour of Asia on Thursday seeking to revive America’s prestige as a regional power, on a trip much heavier on symbolism than diplomatic substance. Obama will take a precious week out of his bid to enact an ambitious domestic agenda to show the region, and a rising China, that Washington is no longer distracted by crises elsewhere. He is due to travel first to Japan for talks Friday with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, then attend the weekend’s APEC summit in Singapore and become the first U.S. president to sit down with all 10 leaders of ASEAN, including Myanmar (Burma). Obama will next visit Shanghai, and fly on to Beijing for a state dinner and talks with President Hu Jintao, then wrap up his tour in South Korea. “It’s a common perception in the region that U.S. influence has been on the decline in the last decade, while Chinese influence has been increasing,” said Obama’s top East Asia aide Jeffrey Bader. “One of the messages that the president will be sending in his visit is that we are an Asia-Pacific nation and we are there for the long haul.” The White House is stressing that Obama, who grew up in Hawaii and spent a number of childhood years in Indonesia, is familiar with, and to some extent shares an Asian worldview on some issues. Obama aides say the previous Bush administration saw ties with Asia through the prism of their global war on terror, and neglected its Asian relationships. As China expanded its clout, U.S. influence suffered from the spending and borrowing binge that triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Yet for all the talk of a diminished role, Washington remains a player. The United States is a guarantor of Asian security, with a combined 75,000 troops in South Korea and Japan and the Seventh Fleet prowling regional waters. While the dollar is humbled and the US economy wounded, a consumer-led American recovery would revive vast export markets for Asian nations. But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggested that Washington is also looking to its Asian trading partners to power demand in the meantime. “As US households save more and the US reduces its fiscal deficit, others must spur greater growth of private demand in their own economies,” Geithner said in an op-ed co-authored with his counterparsts from Indonesia and Singapore and published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal. The Obama factor could also come into play on the trip. Aides always try to leverage the president’s intriguing personal story and political charisma abroad, to court locals over the heads of their leaders. Obama, on his first overseas mission since winning the Nobel Peace Prize, will stress engagement and hopes for cooperation on national security, climate change and economic issues. But tangible results may have to wait. Many Asian nations want Obama to reignite global trade talks, and South Korea wants action on a bilateral trade pact. But as he pushes historic reform drives like health care, Obama lacks the political sway to dictate trade policy to Congress and with unemployment topping 10 percent, the threat from Asian economies looms large. Significant breakthroughs are not expected on global warming in Obama’s talks with Hu. China and the United States are considered vital to fading hopes of a deal at UN climate talks in Copenhagen next month. Shadowing Obama throughout the trip will be his looming decision on whether to deploy thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan — he held his latest war council on the issue in the White House on Wednesday. Obama wants to cement ties with new Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama and draw similarities between their respective crusades for political change.
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