Clinton to meet Asian ministers in Indonesia

NUSA DUA–US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday kicks off two days of talks with her Asian counterparts focusing on security issues, amid rising tension in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Clinton arrived on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Thursday after a trip to India where she urged New Delhi to be more assertive in Asia, a message likely to be read with deep suspicion by the government in Beijing.

She will meet her counterparts from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the wider East Asia Summit on Friday, followed a day later by the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

The forum is Asia’s premier security dialogue and includes senior ministers and officials from across Southeast Asia as well as China, Japan, the Koreas, Russia and Australia.

Issues such as territorial disputes in the South China Sea, North Korea’s nuclear program, the Thai-Cambodia border dispute and human rights in Myanmar are expected to be discussed in the course of the meetings.

Clinton will also be laying the groundwork for President Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia in November for the East Asia Summit leadership meeting, which will be the first time a US president has attended the forum.

“Clinton has decided that Southeast Asia, specifically ASEAN, will serve as the fulcrum for a long-term Asia strategy,” Centre for Strategic and International Studies analyst Ernest Bower wrote in a briefing paper.

He said ASEAN was not more strategically important than India, China, or Japan, but “it is the focal point where the most important geostrategic chess games of the 21st century will be played”.

“At times like this, it appears that the secretary of state is the only US cabinet member, except perhaps Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who understands this fact,” Bower added.

Clinton’s visit comes after China and Southeast Asian nations announced a “breakthrough” in drawn-out talks on their overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The countries endorsed a set of guidelines designed to reduce tensions in the strategic waterway and create an atmosphere conducive to the eventual adoption of a binding code of conduct.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan all have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits and home to shipping lanes vital to global trade.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters in Bali on Thursday that tensions in the South China Sea were “nothing new”.

“Everyone realises the complexity of the issues we are dealing with and the important thing is to develop a degree of communication and goodwill among all the players going forward,” he said.

Clinton riled the Chinese delegation at the last ARF in Hanoi a year ago when she stated that it was in the United States’ “national interest” to keep those shipping routes open for business.

Tensions have escalated in recent months, with the Philippines and Vietnam expressing alarm at what they say are increasingly aggressive Chinese actions.

These include accusations of Chinese forces opening fire on Filipino fishermen, shadowing an oil exploration vessel employed by a Philippine firm, and putting up structures in areas claimed by the Philippines.

Vietnam voiced anger after a Chinese vessel cut the exploration cables of a Vietnamese survey ship in May, and Beijing condemned US-Vietnam naval exercises that began last week off Vietnam’s coast.