Clinton heads to Asia with global agenda

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-15 15:31

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton's first trip abroad as US President Barack Obama's chief diplomat will emphasize the administration's interest in Asia while probably producing no major policy changes.

Secretary Of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the Asia Society, Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 in New York.[Agencies]

Previous secretaries of state have traveled first to Europe or the Middle East. For Clinton, who departs Sunday for Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China, her tour is a symbolic gesture aimed at reassuring friends and allies of their standing and impressing the Chinese with early engagement.

"It is important to signal that we intend to develop broader and deeper relationships not only with the countries that I'll be visiting but with other nations throughout Asia and the Pacific," she told reporters in a conference call ahead of her trip. "We believe that our futures are inextricably linked."

At the Asia Society in New York on Friday, Clinton spoke of wanting "more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement" with the region. For talks with leaders in each capital, she is bringing a sheaf of global issues, including the financial crisis and climate change.

Her talking points will include clean energy, organized crime, human trafficking and pandemic disease such as bird flu during her visit in China and Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his childhood. He hopes to visit Indonesia early on in his presidency.

While Obama's national security team continues wide-ranging reviews on most aspects of foreign policy, Clinton's hosts probably will not see any substantial shifts from the Bush administration, although they may detect a change in emphasis.

The Obama administration is looking to reshape the past approach to Beijing, broadening and deepening relations. The administration wants to reinforce traditional alliances with Japan and South Korea, which host thousands of American troops, as the bedrock of Asia-Pacific security.

Clinton intends to sign an agreement in Japan that will see 8,000 Marines now stationed in Okinawa relocate to Guam and will commit the Japanese government to helping pay for further realignment of US forces, officials said. In Indonesia, she plans to announce an upgrade in US relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping that often felt slighted during the Bush administration.

Accompanying her will be her new special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, a former White House assistant who was the chief US negotiator at the Kyoto Protocol talks in President Bill Clinton's administration.

Experts noted that the financial crisis would also play a major part in Clinton's discussions, especially in Japan and China, the wealthiest nations on her itinerary.