Obama in Singapore to strengthen Southeast Asia ties

Obama visits Muslim country while Americans reel over Fort Hood terrorism

By Steve Miller
Saturday, November 14, 2009

Reporting from Singapore - President Obama arrived in Singapore today to meet with leaders of Southeast Asia, as he seeks to reach out to a region that many feel has been neglected by the United States -- even as China's influence here has grown extensively over the past decade.

Obama, on the second leg of his first Asia trip as president, left Japan earlier than scheduled to attend a dinner with leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. His schedule in Singapore includes a meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to discuss efforts on Iran's nuclear threat and an arms-control treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

Obama also plans to join a gathering of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, where he's expected to be warmly welcomed, all the more because Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

In a wide-ranging speech in Tokyo on Friday night, the president called himself "America's first Pacific president."

"I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world," he said in the speech. FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article misspelled senior White House aide Mike Froman's last name as From.
But one of the key messages that he will press in Singapore and throughout his seven-day Pacific trip is that Asian countries must import more U.S. goods and rely less on exporting to American consumers, so as to avoid a repeat of the kind of boom-and-bust cycle that contributed to the current financial crisis.

And that message won't be popular. Like the United States, many Asian economies are only now emerging from the global recession that has its origins in the U.S. What's more, the dollar's declining value against some Asian currencies have made their exports less competitive in overseas markets.

Obama's push on the economic front comes as he faces increasing pressure and political vulnerability at home, with the U.S. jobless rate climbing into double digits. During his 30-minute speech in Tokyo, Obama mentioned the word "jobs" eight times and said pointedly that rebalancing the global economy and increasing U.S. exports were significant to spurring job growth in the U.S.

Elaborating further on that, Mike Froman, a senior White House aide on economic issues, said in a briefing in Tokyo that about 26% of American exports go to Asian countries in APEC and that they account for 3.7 million jobs in the U.S. For every percentage increase in the share of exports to this region, he said, it could create a quarter-million jobs back home.

But "employment and recovery are major issues for Asian governments" too, said Eric Heginbotham, an Asia specialist at the Rand Corp., a think tank based in Santa Monica. "They're unlikely to take very kindly to additional pressure on economics."

Among efforts to engage more in the Asia-Pacific region, Obama said in his speech that his administration would participate in the affairs of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a bloc made up of Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei.

Although Asian leaders and American business groups applauded such steps, the administration has come under criticism from Asian and other trading partners for protecting American markets and failing to take leadership on advancing the so-called Doha round of global trade talks as well as free-trade pacts involving South Korea and Colombia, deals that face strong headwinds from Congress and organized labor.

Trade will be a central topic when Obama moves on to China on Sunday. The Asian superpower maintains a huge trade surplus over the U.S. and is its largest foreign creditor, holding hundreds of billions of dollars in American Treasury bonds.

In his Tokyo speech, Obama stressed that he wants a cooperative relationship with China in which the two nations act as responsible global powers, setting aside differences to cope with climate change, nuclear proliferation and economic instability.

Obama said the U.S. has no wish to "contain" China, a strategy that grew out of the Cold War era when the American government strove to block the spread of communism.

"I know there are many who question how the United States perceives China's emergence," he said. "But, as I have said, in an interconnected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game, and nations need not fear the success of another. Cultivating spheres of cooperation -- not competing spheres of influence -- will lead to progress in the Asia Pacific."

Obama's half-hour speech at a concert hall was warmly received by an audience of about 1,500 Japanese. It was interrupted by applause more than a dozen times, and he got a standing ovation at the end. Weaving in bits of his biography, Obama said his family's roots in Asia give him a perspective unique among U.S. presidents.

He told the crowd that he "lived in Indonesia as a boy. "My sister, Maya, was born in Jakarta, and later married a Chinese Canadian. My mother spent nearly a decade working in the villages of Southeast Asia, helping women buy a sewing machine or an education that might give them a foothold in the world economy. So the Pacific Rim has helped shape my view of the world."

Obama will spend more than two days in China, where he will meet with the country's leadersand tour the Great Wall.

Obama's speech trod a bit of a diplomatic minefield. He sought to make clear that the U.S. does not view China as a strategic threat. At the same time, he did not want to ignore deep differences over China's approach to human rights and political dissent.

"So the United States does not seek to contain China, nor does a deeper relationship with China mean a weakening of our bilateral alliances," Obama said. "On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."

Obama offered an implicit rebuke of China's leadership -- its censorship of the Internet and preference for one-party rule. A universal human desire, he said, is "the freedom to speak your mind and choose your leaders, the ability to access information and worship how you please."

As the Obama administration sees it, China is indispensable to meeting crucial goals. The U.S. wants China's help in persuading North Korea and Iran to forswear nuclear weapons, in stabilizing Afghanistan and in setting conditions for a more "balanced" world economy not dependent on American consumerism.

Obama devoted part of his speech to one of the thorniest issues in the region: North Korea's nuclear ambitions. He said the country can choose between two possible paths.

Pursuit of nuclear weapons will only leave the regime isolated, he said. But a more compliant North Korea will find a host of new trading partners and friends, the president said.

"Working in tandem with our partners -- supported by direct diplomacy -- the United States is prepared to offer North Korea a different future. Instead of an isolation that has compounded the horrific repression of its own people, North Korea could have a future of international integration. Instead of gripping poverty, it could have a future of economic opportunity -- where trade and investment and tourism can offer the North Korean people the chance at a better life," Obama said.

One Japanese analyst said Obama hit the right notes for audiences across Asia.

"President Obama covered most of the important points. . . . The speech itself was one that didn't emphasize areas Japan and the U.S. were having difficulties resolving, out of respect for Japan," said Yasunori Sone, a political science professor at Keio University in Tokyo.

But Sone was also looking for more indication of U.S. plans.

"He did emphasize how he is the first Pacific Rim president . . . and he understands Asia to a certain degree. So is President Obama going to respond to a diverse Asia in a wide range of ways, or will his response to Asia be in an across-the-board manner? That wasn't clear."

peter.nicholas@latimes.com

Special correspondent Yuriko Nagano in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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