WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Obama hails expanded US engagement in Asia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-14 17:21 TOKYO: US President Barack Obama declared Saturday that an era of American disengagement in the globe's fastest-growing region is over.
In a 40-minute speech, Obama offered incentives for DPRK to abandon the nuclear weapons it is believed to already have and the production program it continues in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. He outlined a possible future of economic opportunity and greater global respect, saying, "this respect cannot be earned through belligerence." "It should be clear where that path leads," Obama said. "We will continue to send a clear message through our actions, and not just our words: DPRK's refusal to meet its international obligations will lead only to less security, not more." More broadly, the president's address to 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring downtown Tokyo concert hall was intended to showcase a United States that, under Obama's leadership, seeks deeper engagement in Asia. It was the fifth major foreign address of his 10-month presidency. He reached out to locals through several personal notes that delighted his audience, including calling himself "America's first Pacific president," referring to his boyhood time in Indonesia and travels in Asia, and saluting the residents of Obama, Japan.
Obama said Washington would work hard to strengthen alliances in Asia, such as with Japan and South Korea, build on newer ones with nations like China and Indonesia, and increase its participation with a burgeoning alphabet soup of Asian multilateral organizations. The involvement, the president said, is not just academic for Americans. It affects everyday, top-priority issues such as jobs, a cleaner environment and preventing dangerous weapons proliferation, he said. "I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region, because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home," Obama said. "The fortunes of America and the Asia Pacific have become more closely linked than ever before." Obama also sounded free-trade notes sure to be welcome in Asia, where nations are rapidly seeking agreements with each other. He said the US would seek to join a trans-Pacific free-trade area, formed in 2006 between Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei. Vietnam and Australia are also said to be keen to join it. The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership is seen as a starting point for a possible regional free trade area comprising 21 countries of Asia-Pacific. Obama's announcement gives the proposal a boost. In Japan, the relationship with the US is on newly delicate footing after a change in leadership in Tokyo that has the Japanese moving toward greater independence from Washington and closer ties with the rest of Asia. Saturday night, Obama arrives in Singapore, where he is to join a larger meeting. He is the first US president to make such close contact. Obama ends his trip on an easier note in South Korea, an increasingly reliable US ally. Obama made Tokyo the venue for his speech, a symbolically important choice that displayed respect for Japan's long history as the US' chief ally in Asia and one of the region's foremost democracies. After his speech, Obama had lunch with Japan's Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, bowing deeply as they welcomed him to the graceful grounds of the Imperial Palace in the heart of the bustling city. Obama's speech won praise from several Asian analysts. Shen Dingli, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, welcomed the remarks about not seeing China as a threat. "He did not want to go to Asia to renew differences," Shen said. "The differences are clear, everybody knows them. He wants to make clear we share some fundamental values."
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