Hillary in Asia: Time to Listen

The new US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Japan as part of her Asian tour. This is a departure from the hallowed diplomatic tradition of paying the first visit to Europe.

As part of President Obama’s foreign policy agenda, the high-profile top diplomat is seeking “partnerships” with allied states and “engaging” with even those that are in conflict or opposed to US interests. China, South Korea and Indonesia are the other countries that are on Clinton’s itinerary. No wonder the current economic crisis figures high on her agenda for talks. The wider objective of the visit is to hold key talks on issues such as mutual economic recovery, trade, prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation and reversing the global warming trend. In the run up to her Asian visit, Clinton had delivered a key note address at the New York-based Asia Society where the main thrust of her speech was the new administration’s keenness to “develop a broader and deeper relationship with Asia — a region that has felt overlooked by the US, despite its growing global importance”. There are some issues that are expected to dominate her trip. North Korea’s warning to scrap the peace agreement with South Korea over the rise of tensions forced Secretary Clinton to warn North Korea even before her departure that it could only achieve a permanent, stable pace with the US as long as its regime pursues disarmament and does not engage in aggression against South Korea. She has called its nuclear programme “the most acute challenge to stability in North East Asia.”

Japan’s key concern about being reunited with families of kidnapped Japanese families by North Korea three decades back is also to be addressed by her besides an expected agreement where more than 8,000 US troops would be moved from Okinawa to the island of Guam. The US plans to improve relations with China are of critical importance and are expected to move forward on re-establishing military-to-military contacts with Beijing. There’s also talk of greater cooperation with China on climate control.

The US attempt at bringing a fresh perspective to its relations with Asian states, engaging them in partnerships to work on matters of concern, is bound to be received better than in the past when Washington often took action without “listening to others.”