Obama to renew Asia pivot in 2014

From the Daily Tribune (Nov 21): Obama to renew Asia pivot in 2014

President Barack Obama will visit Asia in April to push closer ties, an aide yesterday said, after his earlier cancellation of a trip raised questions about US staying power.

Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, acknowledged disappointment after the president called off a trip in October to negotiate with Republican lawmakers who shut down the US government in a failed bid to stop his health care reforms.

Rice said Obama would make up with his trip next year, saying: “Our friends in Asia deserve and will continue to get our highest-level attention.”

“No matter how many hot spots emerge elsewhere, we will continue to deepen our enduring commitment to this critical region,” she added.

Rice said US assistance to the typhoon-hit Philippines, which includes the deployment of more than 1,000 Marines, represented a broader pledge to all of Asia.

“America’s commitment won’t expire a few months or a few years from now. The United States of America will be there — reliable, constant, strong and steady — for the long haul,” she stressed.

Rice did not specify Obama’s itinerary.

Kyodo News reported that Obama’s stops would include Japan, his first visit there since conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power.

Obama had planned stops last month in the Philippines, Malaysia and, for international summits, Indonesia and Brunei.

Even US allies quietly voiced concern over Obama’s no-show, which offered an outsized role to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the meetings.

Obama pledged in his first term to “pivot” US foreign policy toward Asia, where the regional order is being transformed by the rapid growth of China’s economy and military.

But in his second term, Obama has focused on Syria’s civil war and easing hostility with Iran. The United States has also put a priority on taming its debt after two wars and a recession.

In the renewed regional push, Vice President Joe Biden will tour China, Japan and South Korea next month.

Biden met last Wednesday with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and discussed China’s latest reforms, the White House said.

Rice said that Secretary of State John Kerry, who has invested most of his time in the Middle East since taking office, would return to Asia in December as well.

She added the US would stay true to its pledge to shift most of its navy toward Asia by 2020 and would pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that Obama hopes will shape the coming order in Asia.

The national security adviser also voiced alarm over China’s disputes with its neighbors, including US allies Japan and the Philippines, calling the tensions a “growing threat to regional peace and security and to US interests.”

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/obama-to-renew-asia-pivot-in-2014