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Published on March 3, 2008

Kudos have to go to US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs Christopher Hill, who was here over the weekend and outlined US policy towards the whole Asian region. It is the first time that a senior official from the Bush administration has come here and talked at length of the US's aspirations with a friendly audience. He was candid.

He started out with Thailand. Interestingly, he perceived Thailand as a democracy that can lead Asean, especially later this year when the country will host the Asean Summit.

Of course, Thailand, as the US's oldest ally in Asia, has yet to live up to expectations. Washington wishes to see the country play an eminent role in this part of the world. For the past few years, Thailand has suffered from a myriad of uncertainties, plagued by the coup of September 2006 and other shenanigans during the Thaksin years.

Now, with an elected government under the leadership of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, Thai-US relations are being put to the test again. There are many hurdles to cross and outstanding bilateral issues to be settled.

The situation now is a far cry from times past when Thailand was the linchpin of US policy towards Asia. This is no longer the case as the US has broadened its relations with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Of course, Thai-US relations are still key to security and stability in Southeast Asia.

In addition, Hill also spent a lot of time dealing with the situation in North Korea, an issue dear to his heart. He was very passionate talking about the six-party talks and their outcome. The success of the six-party talks holds the possibility of the discussions turning into a multilateral security forum.

Hill reiterated that the US would support such a security mechanism, which could help resolve inter-state conflicts in Asia. At the moment, the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) is the only regionwide security dialogue forum, bringing together 27 member countries from the Pacific Rim to South and Southwest Asia. While Hill pointed out that the US continues to actively engage the ARF, he said Washington wishes the forum would move towards preventive diplomacy and substantive measures.

By supporting a new multilateral security forum, the US is indeed directly putting pressure on Asean to allow non-Asean members to play a bigger role in the process. It is an open secret that the US, along with other Western ARF members, has asked to co-chair the ARF, which is currently restricted to Asean members. Asean argues that non-Asean members are allowed to co-chair dozens of inter-session groups, which in the grouping's views is sufficient for the time being.

If the six-party members are successful in setting up their own security forum in the future, this could impact on the ARF process. Indeed, Hill thinks a little competition could go a long way. After all, any security arrangement that can resolve conflict and build permanent peace should be encouraged at all costs.

The US also allayed fears that China's increasing presence in the region would mean less of the US. For the past decade, Asean-China ties have gone from strength to strength, while Asean-US ties are becoming harder to further after 30 years of relations. Mindful of weak Asean-US ties, the White House has already appointed deputy assistant secretary for Southeast Asia Scot Marciel as the US's first ambassador to Asean.

Such a move will certainly boost the sagging image of the US in the region. It will also set the trend for other dialogue partners to follow. Starting next year, Asean will set up a permanent representative system based in Jakarta.

As part of its foreign policy towards Asean, the US has expressed its readiness to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the grouping. The US will join in FTA chapter negotiations on investment and financial services among Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. Such a move will further its trade and investment stakes in the region.

All in all, the US has said loud and clear that the country is here to stay and will do whatever is necessary to keep it that way.

The Nation