WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s first trip abroad as President Barack Obama’s chief diplomat will emphasize the administration’s interest in Asia while probably producing no major policy changes.
Previous secretaries of state have traveled first to Europe or the Middle East. For Clinton, who departs today 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.
Efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons are an important part of her agenda in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing, where concern is high over recent saber-rattling from the North.
Her talking points will touch on human-rights concerns in China and Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his childhood. Other items for Clinton include clean energy, organized crime, human trafficking and the threat of pandemic disease such as bird flu.
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 might detect a change in emphasis.
The Obama administration is looking to reshape the approach to Beijing, broadening and deepening relations with an eye toward economics and dealing with carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. The administration wants to reinforce traditional alliances with Japan and South Korea, which host thousands of U.S. 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 move to Guam and will commit the Japanese government to helping pay for further realignment of U.S. forces, officials said. In Indonesia, she plans to announce an upgrade in U.S. relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
