Monday 9 March 2009


CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Ralph A. Cossa

The Korea Times, March 9, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Asia last month underscored elements of continuity and change in the Obama administration's Asia policy.

Generally speaking, her visits to Northeast Asia - to Japan, Korea, and China - represented continuity. But her trip to Indonesia signaled change.

Her first stop was, as it should have been, Tokyo, where she underscored the continuing role of the U.S.-Japan alliance relationship as the "foundation" of U.S. Asia policy and the "cornerstone of security in East Asia," as it was during the Bush administration (and during her husband's and prior administrations before that).

She clearly endorsed the "military transformation" plans of her predecessor by formally signing an agreement with her Japanese counterpart to relocate some 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014 (with substantial Japanese financial support), while stressing that America's defense commitment to Japan remained as strong and unwavering as ever.

Clinton also met with the families of "abductees" (Japanese citizens known or suspected to have been kidnapped by North Korea, mostly during the 1980s) promising, as the Bush administration had before her, that their loved ones would not be forgotten, while being equally careful not to tie North Korean denuclearization too closely to progress on the abductee issue.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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