Eyeing Chinese assertiveness, US President Barack Obama and the
prime ministers of Japan and Australia committed yesterday to deepen their
military cooperation and work together on strengthening maritime security in
the Asia Pacific.
The meeting, the first since 2007 among leaders of the three
allies, risked antagonizing Beijing after a week when Obama reached a
surprising level of consensus with Chinese President Xi Jinping on climate
change and trade, and Japan and China took steps to improve their relationship.
China has viewed Obama’s efforts to deepen alliances with other
countries in the region, particularly on security issues, as an attempt to
counter Beijing’s rise.
In a joint statement following the meeting, the three leaders said
they had agreed to “deepen the already strong security and defense cooperation”
between their countries. They also agreed to work on boosting “maritime
security capacity building” in a region rife with disputes between China and
its neighbors over claims to waters and islands.
However, there were no announcements on specific military
exercises or new troop deployments within the region.
White House officials insisted that the three-way talks on the
sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit were not meant to send a message
to China. But in advance of Obama’s meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott and Japan’s Shinzo Abe, the president pressed China to “adhere to the
same rules as other nations – whether in trade or on the seas.”
“By virtue of its size and its remarkable growth, China will
inevitably play a critical role in the future of this region,” Obama said
Saturday in a speech at the University of Queensland. “And the question is,
what kind of role will it play?”
An Obama administration official said the three-way meeting had
been in the works for a year. Beyond military cooperation, the leaders also
discussed the US-led campaign to defeat Islamic State militants in the Middle
East, combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, and stop
Russia’s destabilizing actions in Ukraine.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been of particular
concern in Australia, which lost 38 citizens when Moscow-backed rebels downed a
commercial airliner earlier this year.
Australia was Obama’s last stop on a weeklong trip that began in
China and Myanmar. He arrived politically weakened at home by the Democratic
Party’s election defeats Nov. 4. The president has tried to show the region’s
leaders that he retained the ability to deliver on promises to deepen US
engagement in Asia and the Pacific, an effort he sees as a central part of his
foreign policy.
“There are times when people have been skeptical of this
rebalance, they’re wondering whether America has the staying power to sustain
it,” Obama said. “I’m here to say that American leadership in the Asia Pacific
will always be a fundamental focus of my foreign policy.”
In China, he emerged with an ambitious agreement to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a deal to extend visa lengths and move
forward on tariff reductions on high-tech goods.
But despite those areas of agreement, there are major sources of
tension between the powers, particularly Beijing’s provocative actions in
territorial disputes in waters off its borders.
The conflict between China and Japan over a string of uninhabited
islands in the East China Sea has been intense, with Beijing setting up an air
defense zone over the area last year that was denounced by the US.
During a trip to Tokyo this year, Obama pledged to fulfill
America’s treaty obligations to defend Japan if it were to come under attack
from China as part of the conflict over the islands.
In recent days, China and Japan have acted to try to ease
tensions. Xi and Abe held their first-ever meeting in Beijing this past week, a
discussion the Japanese leader called a “first step” toward reconciling.
Australia, the G-20 host, has played an important role in Obama’s
efforts to bolster the US military presence in the region in order to be a
counterweight to China. During a trip to Australia in 2011, Obama announced a
plan to rotate 2,500 US Marines through a military base in the northern city of
Darwin.
Post a Comment