By P. Parameswaran WASHINGTON (AFP) - A week after US President George W. Bush postponed talks with Southeast Asian leaders, Washington confirmed Tuesday that his top diplomat will also skip an annual meeting with regional counterparts, prompting warnings that Asia may take offence.
As the Bush administration clears the decks to focus on Iraq, the failure by the two to keep their appointments could be seen by the region as a snub, experts say, especially since Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has scrapped her trip twice.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice's deputy John Negroponte would lead the US delegation to the meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila this year.
The meetings include an August 1-2 dialogue between the region and its key trading partners -- ASEAN is the largest US export market after Europe and Japan -- as well as a high-level regional security forum.
The 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the only high level official security group in the Asia-Pacific region, and includes Russia, India, China, the European Union and North Korea.
"Secretary Rice regrets that she won't be able to travel to the ASEAN meeting. It is the press of other business," McCormack told reporters, citing her July 30-August 2 trip to the Middle East to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stability in Iraq.
The White House announced last week that Bush had postponed talks with leaders of the 10 ASEAN states -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The landmark summit, scheduled for September when Bush receives a much-awaited assessment of the situation in insurgency-wracked Iraq, was aimed at highlighting 30 years of official ties between Washington and Southeast Asia.
Rice had cancelled a trip to the annual ASEAN meetings in 2005, becoming the first American secretary of state to skip the ARF talks since they were first held in 1994, drawing criticism from the region which felt its stature had diminished in Washington's eyes.
"Obviously, the Middle East is terribly important but I think it would only be natural if the countries in Southeast Asia did feel a bit slighted," said Asian expert Robert Hathaway of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.
"Other than the war on terrorism, Washington has in recent years rather neglected that part of the world. So I expect the State Department announcement today will not be welcomed," he said.
ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong had said last week that it would be a "dampener" if Rice skipped this year's meeting.
But McCormack said Washington's engagement in Southeast Asia was unshaken.
"I don't think anybody really seriously questions our engagement in Southeast Asia. We have deep involvement with not only ASEAN but with the individual countries in Southeast Asia," he said.
"I expect that she (Rice) will at some point in the next 18 months travel to Southeast Asia as well," particularly to the Philippines, he said.
Despite the assurances, however, governments in East Asia "firmly believe they are witnessing the long, steady decline of the US commitment to their region," said Walter Lohman, former senior vice president of the US-ASEAN Business Council.
"To them, the latest series of decisions appear to be part of a pattern dating back to the pullout from Clark Air Base and Subic Bay in 1992," he said, referring to the US withdrawal from the key Philippine bases.
While the region is familiar with the overwhelming draw on US attention from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, "they are also witnessing up close a China that, if it is not yet a superpower, is emerging as first among equals in the region," Lohman said.
"The calculation is not an idle exercise -- governments in East Asia are determining where their future lies and whether they can rely on the United States for the next 50 years in the same way they relied on it for the previous 50," he said.
As the Bush administration clears the decks to focus on Iraq, the failure by the two to keep their appointments could be seen by the region as a snub, experts say, especially since Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has scrapped her trip twice.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice's deputy John Negroponte would lead the US delegation to the meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila this year.
The meetings include an August 1-2 dialogue between the region and its key trading partners -- ASEAN is the largest US export market after Europe and Japan -- as well as a high-level regional security forum.
The 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the only high level official security group in the Asia-Pacific region, and includes Russia, India, China, the European Union and North Korea.
"Secretary Rice regrets that she won't be able to travel to the ASEAN meeting. It is the press of other business," McCormack told reporters, citing her July 30-August 2 trip to the Middle East to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stability in Iraq.
The White House announced last week that Bush had postponed talks with leaders of the 10 ASEAN states -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The landmark summit, scheduled for September when Bush receives a much-awaited assessment of the situation in insurgency-wracked Iraq, was aimed at highlighting 30 years of official ties between Washington and Southeast Asia.
Rice had cancelled a trip to the annual ASEAN meetings in 2005, becoming the first American secretary of state to skip the ARF talks since they were first held in 1994, drawing criticism from the region which felt its stature had diminished in Washington's eyes.
"Obviously, the Middle East is terribly important but I think it would only be natural if the countries in Southeast Asia did feel a bit slighted," said Asian expert Robert Hathaway of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.
"Other than the war on terrorism, Washington has in recent years rather neglected that part of the world. So I expect the State Department announcement today will not be welcomed," he said.
ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong had said last week that it would be a "dampener" if Rice skipped this year's meeting.
But McCormack said Washington's engagement in Southeast Asia was unshaken.
"I don't think anybody really seriously questions our engagement in Southeast Asia. We have deep involvement with not only ASEAN but with the individual countries in Southeast Asia," he said.
"I expect that she (Rice) will at some point in the next 18 months travel to Southeast Asia as well," particularly to the Philippines, he said.
Despite the assurances, however, governments in East Asia "firmly believe they are witnessing the long, steady decline of the US commitment to their region," said Walter Lohman, former senior vice president of the US-ASEAN Business Council.
"To them, the latest series of decisions appear to be part of a pattern dating back to the pullout from Clark Air Base and Subic Bay in 1992," he said, referring to the US withdrawal from the key Philippine bases.
While the region is familiar with the overwhelming draw on US attention from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, "they are also witnessing up close a China that, if it is not yet a superpower, is emerging as first among equals in the region," Lohman said.
"The calculation is not an idle exercise -- governments in East Asia are determining where their future lies and whether they can rely on the United States for the next 50 years in the same way they relied on it for the previous 50," he said.
2 comments:
I believed once USA leaders have archieved their goal in changing the mind leaders of two countries which Presidnts have labeled as Axix of evils, President will start to teach small South east Asia leaders sunch as Hun sen and all his camarade how to stick on rule of laws. Hun Sen will have to wait his relationship with USA in the next two months. He is also one of the evils.
When President Bush was elected, Asia was silent. Why do you think Ms. Rise would be so thrilled to visit an unwelcoming bunches of losers. She knew Dawn well that Asia was drunk with the Chinese wine. She wasn't going to do anything at this time. What is the point? Until Asia learns to speak and understand American language better than may be she will. Right now, seem like we are only speaking chinese, understanding only Chinese, The Human Right Criminal. Who wants to give anything? Can anyone blaiming her?
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