U.S. making SE Asia a major priority in sign of China's rise

He will attend a meeting in Singapore of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and, while there, will meet with the leaders of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Significantly, he plans to include the Prime Minister of Myanmar, or Burma, a country long shunned by Washington, in the meeting.

And President Obama plans to invite leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries to Washington next year to further strengthen ties with the region.

This decidedly confirms the declaration made in July by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who announced in Thailand when signing the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN that the “United States is back in Southeast Asia.”

This is a region that had been somewhat neglected by the Bush administration, which focused narrowly on terrorism, telling all countries that they were either “with us or against us in the fight against terror.”

This renewed American interest in Southeast Asia is welcomed by the region, which has seen China's influence expand.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father and now an elder statesman, who spoke at a U.S.-ASEAN Business Council meeting in Washington, made this clear. “'The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years,” he said. “So we need America to strike a balance.”

Separately, in an American television interview, he asserted: “The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that's where the growth will be. And if you do not hold your ground in the Pacific, you cannot be a world leader.”

Washington has clearly reached a similar conclusion. It has observed Chinese influence grow in the region, especially in Myanmar, while the United States boycotted the country.

This new policy of engagement with Myanmar was explained by Jeffrey Bader, director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council, in recent remarks at the Brookings Institution. The policy of isolation, he said, has not “in two decades produced positive results” and so “we are now pursuing a direct diplomatic dialogue with Burma.”

But Burma is only an illustration of the new American policy in Asia. “Asians want us to be there for a host of reasons,” Mr. Bader said, “and we need to be there for our own reasons.”

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