The Hindu - October 14, 2013
The cancellation of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit
to South-East Asia, and the two separate tours of Chinese President Xi
Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to the region can be seen as geopolitical
markers of our times. The energetic Chinese foreign policy — which has
seen Xi hop across a dozen nations in three of the world’s six
continents this year, including an intriguing trip to the Caribbean —
contrasts with the seeming American lassitude all around.
This
is most evident in Asia, where the self-declared American pivot to the
region — already diluted by being renamed a “rebalance” has become
hostage to a virtual civil war between the Republican and the Democratic
parties. In the meantime, China has moved to shore up relations with
strategic neighbours Russia and Central Asia and now to repair ties in
South-East Asia that have been frayed by its muscular assertion of
territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Xi
undertook a whirlwind tour of South-East Asia beginning with a two-day
visit to Indonesia earlier this month, followed by a visit to Malaysia
and culminating in his participation at the 21st informal leaders
meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation at Bali. To underscore
the Chinese determination in wooing the ASEAN bloc, this visit has been
followed by Premier Li Keqiang’s October 9-15 tour which saw him first
in Brunei to attend the 16th China-ASEAN leaders meeting, the 16th ASEAN
plus three (China, Japan, South Korea) summit and the eighth East Asia
summit, and then in Thailand and Vietnam.
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