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Obama: Prosperous China strengthens all nations

AP

US President Barack Obama gives a speech at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on 14 November 2009 on the first leg of his Asian tour. Obama said that the United States did not seek to “contain” a rising China and said its emergence could enhance the world’s security and prosperity and that he would not waver from raising human rights issues with China, but would do so without “rancour.”AFP/Getty Images/Yoshikazu Tsuno/Japan

US President Barack Obama says a prosperous China is a “source of strength” for all nations.

The US leader addressed American relationships throughout the Asia Pacific region in a Saturday speech in Tokyo, where he is pushing renewed and deeper 21st century ties with the Japanese.

Looking forward to his visit to Beijing, Obama said the US does not want to contain China, but also declared that he would not ignore America’s “fundamental values…for human rights and human dignity.”

President Barack Obama is emphasising cooperation on his first major trip to Asia, opening with a warning to North Korea that there will be tough, unified action by the US and its Asian partners if the Koreans fail to abandon their nuclear weapons programmes.

The hard line on North Korea was to be a prominent theme of a Friday night speech that also was intended to more broadly showcase a United States that, under Obama’s leadership, seeks deeper and more equal engagement in Asia. It was to be the fifth major foreign address of Obama’s 10-month presidency, this one geared toward setting a new tone for the sometimes-rocky US relationship with the world’s fastest-growing region.

In the speech, to 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring concert hall in bustling downtown Tokyo, Obama planned to give his most extended remarks in some time on North Korea, said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.

Previewing himself, Obama said after a meeting early Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that “it’s absolutely vital” that North Korea — and Iran in the Middle East — bow to international demands that they give up nuclear weapons ambitions. The US, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea are partners in talks to persuade North Korea to give up the active nuclear weapons programme it has in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. Pyongyang is widely believed to have enough weapons-grade plutonium for a half-dozen nuclear bombs.

If the North Koreans comply with the demands, “then they can open the door to a better future,” Obama said. “If not, we will remain united in implementing UN resolutions that are in place and … helping to shape a strategy that meets our security needs and convinces Pyongyang to move in a better direction.”

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. The US-Japan relationship 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.

The president’s remarks came near the start of an eight-day Asian trip that is presenting him with risks at every stop.

After Japan, Obama goes to Singapore, where he is to join a larger meeting that includes the leader of Myanmar’s brutal regime, the first US president to make such close contact. Then he flies to China, where relations with the US are bedeviled by Beijing’s growing economic and military might, as well as numerous issues including trade, currency, Taiwan, human rights and climate change. Obama ends his trip on an easier note in South Korea, an increasingly reliable US ally.

Acknowledging Asia’s growing power, Obama aides said the chief aim for the trip wasn’t so much to bring home specific “deliverables” but to convincingly press the point that the US very much is in the Asian game.

At Hatoyama’s side, Obama promised that Washington would work hard to strengthen established alliances, such as with Japan and South Korea, build on newer ones with nations like China and Indonesia, and increase its participation with Asian multilateral organizations. The involvement, the president said, is crucial to the issues “that matter most to our people,” such as jobs, a cleaner environment and preventing dangerous weapons proliferation.

“I intend to make clear that the United States is a Pacific nation, and we will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world,” the president said. “We have to understand that the future of the United States and Asia is inextricably linked.”

America’s relationships with Tokyo and Beijing were warranting special attention in Obama’s remarks. Hoping to balance the need to stress values such as human rights with worries about overly irritating China, Obama planned to mention “our commitment to the rights and freedoms that we believe all people should have” without bringing up Tibet, said adviser Rhodes.

Tibetans, governed by China since communist troops took control there in 1951, say they want some form of autonomy to freely practice their culture and religion. China says Tibet has been part of its territory for four centuries. Obama has been criticised in some quarters for not standing up more openly to the Chinese on human rights, particularly concerning Tibet.

Several developments served to detract somewhat from Obama’s hopes for a more purely Asia-centric message for his trip.

He delayed his arrival by a day because of last week’s Fort Hood shootings, scrambling his Japan itinerary and drastically cutting his participation in a 21-nation summit of Asian-Pacific leaders in Singapore focused on trade. He also continued deliberations over how many more US troops to send to Afghanistan, a decision that once was assumed would be behind him during his Asia travels but now is draining some of his time and considerable media attention.

Obama denied during the Hatoyama news conference that his administration has dithered dangerously over Afghanistan, saying he is bent on “getting this right” and finding a new start to the 8-year-war that is not an “open-ended commitment.”

Copyright © 2009 AP

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