12:52 PM |
US Secretary of State seeks regional re-engagement
Updated
On the eve of her two-week trip to the Asia Pacific region, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has committed the Obama administration to a continuing re-engagement with the Pacific.
While most of the trip will be focused on Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Ms Clinton will also stopover in Papua New Guinea, a visit which is seen as an indication the US, wants to remain an influence there, and across the South Pacific.
But the trip is also being seen as a sign that the US wants to divert some of the support Pacific island nations have been giving to China.
Presenter: Pacific Correspondent Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State; Fergus Hanson, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy
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COONEY: Speaking to the East West Centre in Hawaii, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out her travel agenda for the next fortnight.
CLINTON: From Hawaii it will be on to Guam and then Vietnam and Cambodia, then Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia and American Samoa.
COONEY: The trip has been described as an Asia Pacific tour.
But the economic importance and strategic ties the US has, and wants to boost in Asia, means the Pacific, is only playing a minor part in this trip, and in her 30 minute presentation in Hawaii, there was really only one reference to the South Pacific.
CLINTON: We are working through the Pacific Islands Forum to support the Pacific Island nations as they strive to really confront and solve the challenges they face from climate change to freedom of navigation. And to that end I am pleased to announce that US aid will return to the Pacific next year, opening an office in Fiji with a fund of 21 million dollars to support climate change mitigation.
COONEY: But Ms Clinton's tour does include a stopover in Papua New Guinea, and Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Fergus Hanson, says that's a clear sign that the US reengagement with the Pacific, which began around seven years ago, is still a focus for US Foreign Policy.
HANSON: It's quite a big deal for the Secretary of State to drop into Papua New Guinea.
COONEY: Over the past few years in the Pacific region, China, and to a certain degree India, have grown in influence.
In her address to the East West Centre Secretary Clinton did not attack either of the growing superpowers, but neither did she ignore them.
CLINTON: Their simultaneous rise is reshaping the world, and our ability to cooperative effectively with these two countries will be a critical test of our leadership.
COONEY: Fergus Hanson from the Lowy Institute says while the US wants to work with both countries, for China in particular, it is also competing for influence.
HANSON: There's no doubt that China has been stepping up its engagement in the region quite dramatically in the last five years or so. So I think that that has caused countries to reassess their positions in the Pacific and take another look at China's activities in the region.
COONEY: But in competing for diplomatic influence, Hillary Clinton says the USA has an ace up its sleeve.
CLINTON: More than our military might and more than the size of our economy, our most precious asset as a nation is the persuasive power of our values. In particular our steadfast belief in democracy and human rights. Our commitment to uphold and project these values is an indispensable aspect of our national character, and it is one of the best and most important contributions we offer the world. So of course it is an essential element of everything we do in US foreign policy.
COONEY: Mr Hanson agrees.
HANSON: There's things that the United States can offer like lifestyle, university, a whole range of soft power factors like its ideals and what it stands for. Where the countries in the region have evolved their political systems and the type of structures that they have in place and institutions, a lot of them tend to be very much aligned much more closely with countries like Australia and New Zealand, the United States.
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