WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States said Monday (Tuesday in Manila) it would no longer allow its row with Myanmar to hold its ties with Southeast Asia hostage, as President Barack Obama geared up for his debut official visit to the region. Obama is expected to hold the first-ever meeting between a US president and leaders of all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members, including Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, on Sunday in Singapore.

“One of the frustrations that we’ve had with policy toward Burma over recent years has been that the inability to have interaction with Burma has prevented certain kinds of interaction with Asean as a whole,” said Obama’s top Asia policy aide Jeffrey Bader.

“The statement we’re trying to make here is that we’re not going to let the Burmese tail wag the Asean dog.”

Bader said the meeting was a multilateral session, and not intended to serve as an opportunity for Obama to have a conversation with a Myanmar leader—though did not categorically rule out such an encounter.

“We’re going to meet with all 10, and we’re not going to punish the other nine simply because Burma is in the room. But this is not a bilateral.”

Myanmar test

Myanmar represents another test for Obama’s policy of engaging US foes, which has also seen him allow contacts between US officials and North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba.

In previous years, hopes for a US-Asean leaders’ summit have foundered on Washington’s refusal to sit down with members of Myanmar’s junta because of their suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi’s democracy movement.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been a constant impediment to US-Asean ties, but the US administration last week sent senior officials to the military-ruled state in a bid to promote a new dialogue after years of shunning the junta.

US policy shift

The Obama administration reasons that the policy of isolating Myanmar has failed for 20 years, so it is time to try a new approach.

But officials caution that they will not lift US sanctions on the military-ruled state until it embraces diplomatic change, and have no high expectations of progress soon.

Obama’s keenness to deepen ties with Asean can be partly explained by the fact that while Washington has been distracted by Middle Eastern quagmires, China has deepened its own links with the region.

Now, some US officials fear Washington could be eclipsed as a major Asian power.

The Asean summit will take place on the sidelines of the annual Asia Pacific Cooperation (APEC) forumin Singapore, at which Obama is also making his debut.

Apart from Myanmar and Singapore, Asean also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Importance of Asia

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama would travel to Asia “to strengthen our cooperation with this vital part of the world on a range of issues of mutual interest.”

Kurt Tong, the US senior APEC official, said at a briefing this week that a number of top American officials would attend the summit in Singapore, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Experts said that speaks volumes about the Obama administration’s desire to play a greater role in Asia. In contrast, Condoleezza Rice was Bush’s only Cabinet official to attend last year’s APEC meeting.

Themes will include the global economic recovery, resisting protectionism, regional economic integration and economic growth that is “less prone to booms and busts,” Tong said.

Tong billed the hefty presence of top US officials as a bid to ramp up US participation. “It’s really quite a concerted and very enthusiastic embrace of the APEC meetings and APEC as an institution by the United States, as evidenced by that participation,” Tong said.

Some experts say that is a major difference from the Bush administration, which was too busy with Middle East concerns to fully engage Asia.

Domestic and Middle East concerns should not diminish expectations for the trip, nor would they distract the administration from playing a greater role in the region, said Andy Johnson, director of the national security program at the Washington, D.C.-based Third Way.

“The Obama administration prides itself on the ability to concurrently [work in] in a number of areas,” he said. “The team he put together and the personal focus he will put toward the trip will probably achieve something of substance.”

Strategic concerns

Johnson said each stop of the upcoming visit had its own strategic importance to the United States.

There was a growing interaction between the United States and China, and Japan and South Korea were regional allies hosting US forces, so the trip would keep those relationships on a firm footing, he said. The region was also one of the world’s most dynamic trading areas, he added.

APEC represented an important group of emerging countries and the United States wanted to ensure shared economic interests, he said.

Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the International Studies School at China’s Renmin University, said, “Above all, against the background of the international financial crisis, a visit to Asia, which has been on a sound economic recovery led by countries such as China, is significant for Obama.”

The United States had to cooperate with Asian countries in efforts to deal with the nuclear issues in Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, and to face up to the challenge of climate change, Jin said.

He said Asia had now overtaken Europe in its significance to the United States. US-Europe trade accounted for only half of that with Asia and, with China’s emergence, Asia was now increasingly indispensable to US geopolitical interests.
AFP AND XINHUA