Several Southeast Asian nations are hosting high-level visitors from the United States, who are swinging through the region for a week of summitry and bilateral meetings.
Diplomatic trips are par for the course. But the timing and broader political backdrop against which the visits are taking place signal Washington's commitment to not only continue, but also deepen, its strategic shift towards Asia, experts say.
Prior to President Barack Obama's re-election on November 6, there were questions over the continuity of the US's renewed policy of attention and resources on Asia, which began during his first term, especially if there had been a change in administration.
But within 72 hours of his victory, Washington had headed off some doubts by announcing trips to Southeast Asia and Australia by President Obama and two administration heavyweights who played key roles in executing the US's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.
Asean and Australia were at the core of the Obama administration's increased emphasis on Asia in its first term. Over the past 12 months or so, the US has announced new troop deployments to Australia, new naval deployments to Singapore and new areas for military cooperation with the Philippines.
The current trips were planned in advance and would have proceeded, whether Obama won or lost. But they have taken on greater significance as the president's first overseas trips since his re-election to the White House.
He is heading to Asean member states Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia from Saturday to Tuesday. He will make history as the first sitting US president to visit Myanmar, where he will encourage ongoing economic and political reforms, and Cambodia, where he will attend the East Asia Summit (EAS).
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is accompanying Obama on his three stops after visits to Singapore and to Australia for the annual US-Australia meeting of ministers in Perth on Wednesday. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta joins her in Australia and also has Thailand and Cambodia on his itinerary.
The Perth summit follows the arrival of the first contingent of US Marine and Air Force units to northern Australia.
The visits signal "Obama's intent for a purposeful focus on Asia in his second term", wrote Southeast Asia expert Ernest Bower of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"This is not a typical Asia visit for a US president. The itinerary is based on strategic intent. Obama is carving out new patterns for US engagement in Asia," he noted in a recent analysis, adding that no US president since the Vietnam War era has made an Asia visit that focused completely on Southeast Asia.
During the Obama administration's first term, the most high-profile and concrete elements of its Asia rebalancing have been in the military realm. In its second term, experts expect Washington to flesh out the other dimensions of its Asia policy, including economics, trade, politics and diplomacy.
"It is important that President Obama attends summits like the EAS and works to deepen trade links such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP]," said Vikram Nehru of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The TPP is the fledging trade initiative aimed at creating an Asia-Pacific-wide free trade zone.
"This will give the Asia pivot more credibility and broaden it out beyond the military dimension," Nehru added. Other experts said this would also make China less nervous about what it perceives to be a US containment strategy, and help prevent a situation whereby Asean members feel they need to choose between Washington and Beijing.
The US emphasis on Asia, however, faces potential challenges. They include the loss of key officials including Secretary of State Clinton and Panetta, who both intend to step down; US domestic economic woes that could affect defence spending; new flare-ups of Middle East unrest; and China's reaction to the US's increased focus on Asia.
Despite the potential roadblocks, analysts say the US's Asia pivot will not be easily derailed. One key reason is the attractiveness of Asia's economic dynamism and Washington's desire to leverage on the region as a source of future growth.
Although the US's most immediate foreign policy concern is Iran, Asia is, from an economic point of view, much more important. So both will be "right up there on Obama's second-term agenda", said Professor William Keylor of Boston University.
There is also the legacy issue. Second-term US presidents often turn to foreign policy to leave their mark, as they face less domestic political opposition on that front.
"Obama would probably like to have the new US involvement in Asia as one of the legacies he leaves. If there was one thing where he has thought to put an imprint on policy, that is uniquely his, this is it," said James Mann, a foreign policy expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/11/16/obamas-visit-signals-americas-commitment-to-asian-pivot/
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