Obama seeks equal partnership in Asia
President Barack Obama pressed on with his mission to repair America's global standing, telling Asians he was determined to engage them as equal partners in the economy, diplomacy and security.
In a 40-minute speech from Tokyo on Saturday that ranged across the multitude of issues, the president declared the United States a "nation of the Pacific. Asia and the United States are not separated by this great ocean; we are bound by it."
From Japan, Obama flew to Singapore for a 21-nation summit of Asia-Pacific leaders. While Obama offered in his speech few specifics on one of the key issues for his fellow leaders - trade - the president did reach out warmly to China. With China soon expected to overtake Japan as the world's No. 2 economy, Obama applauded Beijing's robust strides as a burgeoning economic giant.
"We welcome China's efforts to play a greater role on the world stage, a role in which their growing economy is joined by growing responsibility," Obama said in the speech to 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring downtown Tokyo concert hall.
It was the fifth major foreign address of Obama's 10-month presidency, continuing the sharp break with the unilateral approach that marked international relations under the Bush administration.
Obama reached out through several personal notes that delighted his audience, including calling himself "America's first Pacific president" - a bit of a stretch given other presidents' connections to the West Coast, referring to his time in Indonesia, birth in Hawaii and travels in Asia as a boy.
Moving into the substance of his eight-day journey through Asia, Obama was quick to spurn North Korea's nuclear belligerence, warning Pyongyang that the U.S. and its Asian partners would "not be cowed" by the isolated dictatorship's nuclear tests and missile launches.
Obama said, however, the door was open for North Korea to emerge from its deep isolation - an end to punishing U.N. sanctions - if it stopped building nuclear weapons and scrapped those already believed to be in it's arsenal.
He outlined a possible future of economic opportunity and greater global integration, but warned that "this respect cannot be earned through belligerence."
"It should be clear where that path leads," Obama said. "We will continue to send a clear message through our actions, and not just our words: North Korea's refusal to meet its international obligations will lead only to less security, not more."
Obama twice turned to human rights, but he did not criticize China, saying that the two governments must discuss differences over values "in a spirit of partnership rather than rancor." When he did assail a government by name for civil liberties lapses, it was military-ruled Myanmar, not authoritarian China.
On trade - a vital interest to rapidly growing East and Southeast Asia - Obama said the U.S. would apply to join a fledgling trans-Pacific free trade grouping comprised of Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. But he sounded sterner, saying that the export-led growth that many nations pursued to prosperity needs to give way to more balanced strategies.
Acknowledging Asia's growing power and regional perceptions of America's parallel decline, Obama aides said Obama's Asia sojourn was not designed to reap specific agreements but to show that the U.S. remained very much in the Asian game.
Obama said Washington would work hard to strengthen alliances in Asia, such as those with Japan and South Korea, build on newer ones with nations like China and Indonesia, and increase its participation with a growing number of Asian multilateral organizations.
Joining with those groups was essential to top-priority American issues such as creating jobs, a cleaner environment and preventing dangerous weapons proliferation, he said.
"I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region, because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home," Obama said. "The fortunes of America and the Asia Pacific have become more closely linked than ever before."
While most Asian analysts praised the president's speech, Takehiko Yamamoto, professor at Tokyo's Waseda University, warned that Obama should not forget the challenges China "poses to U.S. and Japanese security."
"The United States has high expectations for closer ties with China," he said. "But when it comes to national security, China is a major concern and a destabilizing factor for the Japan-U.S. alliance."
Obama closed his Japan stay with a luncheon with the Japanese emperor and empress, then hastened his departure to make it to Singapore in time for a dinner of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The president had missed Saturday's daylong APEC meeting and the first portion of dinner, but he lingered with fellow leaders for about 90 minutes over their meal and posed for the annual group photo, this year wearing Chinese-style silk shirts in maroon or charcoal blue.
On Sunday, Obama was meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev and Obama were expected to continue work on a treaty to replace the START II nuclear agreement that expires Dec. 5. Both leaders have pledge to reach a new pact before year's end. Administration officials said the two men also would be discussing attempts to curb not only North Korea's nuclear program but blunting Iran's perceived ambitions to build an atomic bomb.
In Singapore, Obama also will become the first U.S. president to sit in on the ASEAN 10 meeting that will include the leader of a brutal regime in Myanmar.
The administration has recently unveiled a new policy of directly engaging the leadership of Myanmar, also known as Burma, while keeping in force punishing sanctions that so far have failed to convince Rangoon to ease it's heavy-handed and repressive methods.
Key to any lifting of sanctions would be the release of all political prisoners.
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven and AP writer Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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