The Impact of Obama’s Asia Tour

The Impact of Obama’s Asia Tour
Barrack Obama’s first Asian trip as president included Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea but not Indonesia where he spent four years of his life. He continued on his first official state visit to Asia to meet the leaders of this region to discuss a variety of topics including American foreign policy and the world economy. He was drawing on personal experience and family roots in Asia to convey during the trip that he is intent on engaging deeply in the region. But he will need to marshal all his skills in cultural diplomacy to rebuild the U.S. position in a region that Washington has neglected in recent years as China has grown in influence. At his first stop in Japan Obama declared himself America’s first Pacific president and warmed the audience by telling them of how as a boy he had gazed a the great bronze Buddha in Kmakura, south Tokyo and eaten green tea ice cream. “ It is something of a new commitment to personally engage in Southeast Asia. “ Eric Heginbotham, an Asia specialist at Ran Corp. said. Obama’s approach is likely to be particularly welcome in Southeast Asia. Although ties with Asia overall have been relatively stable in recent years compared with the United States’ frayed relations with Europe and the Middle East , perceptions run strong in South East Asia that the region has been neglected. Experts say the reason wasn’t so much intentional neglect by Washington as it was a focus on more pressing concerns in Iraq and other parts of the world. The rapid rise of China has drawn other Asian countries to the Middle Kingdom through increased trade. After Tokyo he flied to Singapore to attend the annual Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, a major forum for economies around the Pacific Rim. In Singapore he became the first America president to sit in on the annual meeting of leaders of Asean, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan’s emperor have incensed critics who, said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas.“ I don’t know why president Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it’s not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one”, said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News. He added that the gestures bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama. Another conservative voice Bill Bennett said on CNN’s ‘ state of the Union’s program. It’s ugly. I don’t; want to see it.” Another critics said, “ I think it’s a gesture of kindness that the bow appeared intended to show goodwill between two nations that respect each other. “
Third in the row of his Asia visit was China visit which featured the only sightseeing of his high-intensity journey. He visited the Forbidden city, home of former emperors in Beijing and the centuries old Great Wall outside of the city. Visiting a country’s noted landmarks is considered a sign of respect in the world of diplomacy. Obama did it rightly and timely. Thirty years after the start of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ties are growing but remain mixed on virtually very front. The two nations are partnering more than ever on battling global warming but they still differ deeply over hard targets for reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it. China is a huge and lucrative market for American goods and services, and yet it has a giant trade deficit with the US that like a raft of other economic issues is a bone of contentions between the two governments. Obama has adopted a pragmatic approach that stresses the positive sometimes earning him criticism for being too soft on Beijing particularly in the area of human rights abuses and what the US regards as an undervalued Chinese currency that disadvantages US products.
Obama recognizes that a rising China as the world’s third-largest economy on the way to becoming the second and the largest foreign holder of US debt has shifted the dynamic more toward one of equals. Obama wants not to anger Beijing but to encourage it to pair its growing economic and political clout with greater leadership in solving some of the most urgent global problems, including sagging economy, warming planet and the spread of dangerous weapons. Both sides recognized US and China have differences on the issue of human rights. However, it added that the two sides agreed to resume a human rights dialogue in Washington before the end of February.“We will continue to act in the spirit of equality; mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and religion in order to enhance understanding reduce in different broader common groups.”
Obama’s last leg of Aisa tour was South Korea where the possession of nuclear power by North Korea took the centre stage. He said he was willing to help North Korea repair its economy and end decades of international isolation if Pyongyang stopped a cycle of threats and finally moved towards nuclear disarmament. Obama and South Korea en president Lee Myung-bak have piled pressure on the destitute North by targeting its finances and telling Pyongyang it will win massive rewards if it abandons its atomic ambitions. North Korea rattled the economically powerful region just ahead of Obama’s first visit to Seoul since taking office by sparking a naval fight with the South and telling the world early this month it had produced a fresh batch of arms grade plutonium. But it has toned down its normally strident anti-US rhetoric since Obama began his trip to Asia . Lee said he held out hopes for a deal with the reclusive neighbor under which it would end its decades-long ambitions to build a nuclear arsenal. He said,“I hope that by accepting our proposal the North will secure safety for itself, to prove the quality of life for its people and open the path to anew future. “
Obama said he and South Korea en president Lee Myung-bak agreed that the North must end a pattern of provocations that simply ended up with demands for more concessions but never resolved the central problem. “Our message is clear’ if North Korea is prepared to take concrete and irreversible steps to fulfill its obligations and eliminate its nuclear weapons programme, the United States will support economic assistance and help promote its full integration into the community of nationals.” Obama uttered. Now time waits to see how really North responds to Obama’s call meaning the way of peace, stability and safety. His Aisain tour hints that US will remain as a Pacific power. Obama’s tour was also meant ‘ to strengthen cooperation with this vital part of the world on a range of issues of mutual interest. ‘ American president’s weeklong visit marks a new turn in the relations of the united States with the countries of the Pacific region with China stands in the centre with much regional and global importance.
Md. Masum Billah
Programme Manager: BRAC Education Programme, PACE
Phone: 9355253 (res), 01714-091431(cell)