The US said on Friday it had invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to pay state visits this year, in a further sign of US President Barack Obama’s policy emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Washington had also asked South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to visit this year as part of Washington’s moves to increase economic, security and diplomatic engagement with the region.
Presenting Obama’s updated national security strategy in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank, Rice said it aimed to “enhance our focus on regions that will shape the century ahead, starting with the Asia-Pacific.”
The strategy document stressed the risks posed by rival maritime claims in Asia and by nuclear-armed North Korea.
It said the US was responding by modernizing its treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines and by increasing security cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Washington’s Asia rebalance is largely a response to China’s rise and increased assertiveness in pursuit of territorial claims, but the document said the US rejected “the inevitability of confrontation” with Beijing.
“At the same time, we will manage competition from a position of strength while insisting that China uphold international rules and norms on issues ranging from maritime security to trade and human rights,” the document said.
Rice highlighted Obama’s visit to India last month, a country the US sees as a key counterbalance to a rising China.
She said the visit had “strengthened a critical relationship which will deliver economic and security benefits for both our nations and the broader region.”
A White House spokesman said he had no dates yet to release for the Washington visits.
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