Security, trade top agenda in Biden’s Singapore trip

US Vice President Joe Biden. AP FILE PHOTO

SINGAPORE—Maritime disputes and trade ties with Asia are likely to top the agenda as US Vice President Joe Biden begins a visit to Singapore on Friday, officials and analysts said.

Biden, who arrived in the city-state late Thursday, is scheduled to meet Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, influential elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew.

President Barack Obama’s number two will also meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is visiting Singapore on the same day as part of a tour of Southeast Asia.

On Saturday, Biden will visit a facility of US aerospace giant Pratt & Whitney, and tour the US Navy’s littoral combat ship USS Freedom, which has been deployed to Singapore and the surrounding region for the next eight months to give teeth to Washington’s strategic “pivot” toward Asia.

The USS Freedom, designed to fight close to the shore, arrived in April and will participate in naval exercises as well as visit other ports.

Biden and his wife Jill on Saturday will also become the latest high-profile visitors to be bestowed a unique Singapore honor—having an orchid named after them.

Maritime claims

A senior US administration official said in Washington ahead of the visit that Biden is expected to use his meetings in Singapore to discuss efforts to manage overlapping maritime claims in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), a potential flash point for regional conflict.

China says it owns virtually all of the sea and has increasingly taken steps to enforce its claims, sparking protests from rival claimants the Philippines and Vietnam, which accuse Beijing of hegemonic ambitions.

Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which has been urging China to negotiate a legally binding code of conduct aimed at preventing conflict in those waters.

Beijing, however, has been reluctant to discuss such a code with the 10-nation regional bloc, saying it prefers to deal with individual Asean claimants.

Code of conduct

Biden, in a speech at George Washington University on July 18 ahead of his Asia trip, stressed the importance of a code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea.

“With regard to maritime disputes, it’s critical that all nations have a clear understanding of what constitutes acceptable international behavior,” Biden said.

“That means no intimidation, no coercion, no aggression, and a commitment from all parties to reduce the risk of mistake and miscalculation,” he said, adding that “setting clear rules is the first step to managing these disputes.”

“The prospects where they’re so close—cheek-to-jowl—for mistakes are real. So it’s in everyone’s interest that there be freedom of navigation, unimpeded lawful commerce, respect for international laws and norms, and peaceful resolution of territorial disputes,” Biden said.

Euan Graham, an analyst with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said economics will be on Biden’s agenda as much as security.

Free trade

Washington is seeking “to flesh out the economic leg” of its strategic rebalance through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement, in addition to other initiatives to deepen ties with Asean, Graham told AFP.

The TPP talks currently involve 12 countries—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Biden has said the United States aims for the completion of a TPP deal this year, which would create one of the world’s biggest free trade zones.

Some analysts say the free-trade agreement is part of Washington’s efforts to contain China, which has not been invited to join the TPP.

China is part of talks for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a 16-nation free-trade bloc in Asia that excludes the United States.

Biden, who arrived in Singapore late Thursday from an earlier visit to India, leaves for Hawaii on Saturday.