Clinton pledges increased U.S. economic leadership in Asia
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed Asian economic leaders Wednesday morning and pledged U.S. leadership on building a free, transparent, and fair trade community in East and Southeast Asia. Clinton’s remarks were part of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum being held in downtown Washington, which will feature meetings with senior Obama administration officials ...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed Asian economic leaders Wednesday morning and pledged U.S. leadership on building a free, transparent, and fair trade community in East and Southeast Asia.
Clinton’s remarks were part of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum being held in downtown Washington, which will feature meetings with senior Obama administration officials throughout the week. The United States is hosting the annual APEC conference this November in Hawaii.
Clinton also called for APEC to serve as a more active driver of economic institution building in Asia. "We must decide how we will work together — what rules we will adopt; what principles we will abide by; what behavior we will encourage and discourage in ourselves and in each other. These are open questions. We are called to answer them as individual economies and as an economic community," Clinton said. "APEC provides a forum for reaching those answers."
She touted increased U.S. involvement in Asian regional organizations, including the Obama administration’s decision to join the East Asia Summit, its push to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and an increased dedication of time and resources to U.S. membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Senate just confirmed Obama campaign bundler David Carden as America’s first-ever full time resident ambassador to ASEAN. Until Carden’s arrival, Scot Marcial served as both the State Department’s representative at ASEAN and the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.
"Together, these actions by the United States comprise a strategy that we call ‘forward-deployed diplomacy,’" Clinton said. "It reflects our belief that the security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region is critical to the security and prosperity of the United States and the world. And furthermore, that as a Pacific nation and a Pacific power, the United States has a responsibility to help lead in meeting the challenges and making the most of the opportunities facing us today."
Clinton explained that trade in Asia was key to the administration’s effort to increase economic growth, and reiterated that the Obama administration wanted Congress to ratify free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. She didn’t mention Asia’s largest economy, China, in her remarks.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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