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SINGAPORE: The skipping of major Asian meetings by
President George W. Bush and his top diplomat have left the US
conspicuously absent in Southeast Asia, in stark contrast to China,
analysts say.
“There’s a rising dragon and
a wounded eagle,” said Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore
Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), an independent
think-tank.
But despite public statements of
disappointment by regional diplomats, ties between the United States
and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are likely to
weather any fallout, they said.
It is important, however, for US
officials to recognize Asean’s importance and for the
administration that succeeds Bush to try to repair any damage done,
the analysts added.
“I think it’s a mistake. Some
of them know it’s a mistake but I think they are a bit in a
bind,” Tay told AFP.
US officials this week said
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will skip the Asean Regional
Forum (ARF) and related meetings in Manila scheduled from August 1
to 2 because it coincides with a Middle East trip to discuss the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq.
It will be the second time since
2005 that Rice will miss the ARF, the only high-level official
security group in the Asia-Pacific region. The 27-member ARF
includes Russia, India, China, the European Union and North Korea.
Earlier this month the White
House announced that Bush had postponed a September summit in
Singapore with leaders of the 10 Asean states—Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
“We certainly see China on a
rise, on a soft charm offensive in Asean. Anything Asean wants from
them, within reason, it is given to Asean,” Tay said, also citing
increasing levels of Chinese aid to poorer Asean states such as
Cambodia and Laos.
In contrast, “you see an
erosion of America’s soft power” in the region, he added.
Although not connected, China’s
ascendance and the Bush administration’s slackening “are
affecting the dynamics here in Asia,” Tay said.
“I think people look much more
to China than they did pre-Bush. This is something the next [US]
administration will have to deal with. It’s time to think of an
Asia that doesn’t have America front and center as a partner.” 
--AFP
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