U.S. President Obama standing next to Sen. Dick Lugar: RRstar.com
The United States: Republican Senator Dick Lugar is calling for the U.S. to create a free trade agreement with ASEAN. Lugar stated that sanctions on Myanmar should not negatively America’s economic relationship with the rest of the region. Further:
“China, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have already finalized FTAs with Asean and are sharpening a competitive edge over the U.S. in Southeast Asia,” Lugar said. “The United States should proceed to develop a comprehensive strategy toward engaging ASEAN in serious FTA discussions.
This blog suggested a few months ago that a FTA with ASEAN would greatly increase America’s soft power in the region. Although politically difficult to do in the tail-end of a very damaging recession, if the Democratic Party can afford to buck the labor unions in some sectors, it would be worth it for the Obama Administration to get behind a strong bi-partisan trade deal. In any case, this type of agreement will be years in the making, hopefully in an off-election year.
Japan: It appears that Japan’s new Hatoyama Administration is not wasting time shoring up relations with Southeast Asia. In Jakarta on Oct. 13th, the Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, announced that Japan intends to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia after years of stagnation. He promised Japan would be providing much larger amounts of investment and aid to the region than previously seen. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono was quite receptive to this message. Hopefully, there will be a detailed strategy coming from the PM’s office in the near future.
