America's "pivot" to Asia strategy: Already difficult, now even more difficult!

(Baonghean) - This week from April 23 to 28, US President Barack Obama will make a trip to four Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. This important trip aims to reaffirm the US's policy of "strategic balance" and "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific region. So when did the US initiate this policy, what is its main content and why is it currently facing so much skepticism even from US allies?

US President Barack Obama. Photo: AFP

The Opening Chapter of America's Pacific Century

Starting in July 2009, when signing the document confirming the US participation in the "Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia", the then US Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, declared: "We are returning to Southeast Asia". "Returning" is a term that is true in the case of the US, because the US has been present in the Asia-Pacific region since the 60s and 70s of the last century, in Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, South Vietnam, Guam Island... However, after the collapse of the South Vietnam government in 1975, the influence of the US has decreased to a very low level in Southeast Asia. By November 2009, realizing the importance of the entire Asian region, during his visit to Japan, President Obama declared himself the first "Pacific" president of the United States, with the reason that he was born in Hawaii and grew up in Indonesia.

In November 2011, the Obama administration officially presented its view on the “pivot” to Asia - Pacific in the policy recommendation of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The US “pivot” strategy is based on two main pillars: economic and military. On the one hand, the US promotes economic and trade relations with Asia, with the project of establishing a free trade area within the framework of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On the other hand, from now until 2020, the US will concentrate up to 60% of its naval forces in the Asia - Pacific region. Although the US has always been careful to declare that the new policy is not aimed at containing China and is not purely a security issue, analysts say that the dispute between China and the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal, the tension between North Korea and South Korea, the dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and China's sudden declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea have forced the US to not stay out of the game.

Doubts that cannot be filled

It is a fact that the US has never taken its eyes off the Asia-Pacific region, but there are many reasons why President Obama's administration has not paid due attention to this region. First of all, it is the internal contradictions of the US. The fact that US President Obama's trips to Asia have been delayed three times since 2010 has shown these complex contradictions. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, whose Senate Mr. Obama currently holds, does not want to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement - TPP. The reason why the US has not been able to be interested in Asia is also because in the past decade, Washington's foreign policy and financial focus has been on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But when the attention has been placed in the right place, the financial challenge has been raised. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel himself had to admit that the plan to focus on "air-sea warfare" in Asia that the US is aiming for is very expensive. For example, the expansion of the Guam military base is currently estimated at about 8.6 billion USD, or the total cost for the redeployment of Marines can be up to 12 billion USD. America is different now, the financial crisis still haunts the US, making it unable to "spend" as before. These factors have increased doubts about the feasibility of the US "pivot" strategy.

With this trip to four Asian countries, according to analysts, the biggest challenge for President Obama is how to convince and dispel doubts of leaders of these countries about the role of the US in the region, that the US still places strategic focus here. The important thing is what strategy Mr. Obama will have to both appease allies and avoid escalating tensions with China.

Ukraine crisis disrupts “Asian route”?

The Ukraine crisis has had a significant impact on Washington's path back to Asia. More or less, the US is and will continue to have to pour money into this, on the one hand providing financial support to Ukraine as promised, on the other hand increasing its military presence in the face of Russia. There are two schools of thought on the Ukraine crisis in the US's "pivot" strategy. The first school believes that, because of Ukraine, the US must slow down its progress towards Asia, while it must strengthen relations with Western Europe to confront a rising Russia. Therefore, Western Europe is the current focus of the US, while Asia - Pacific should be placed in the "future". With this point of view, the US is struggling to consider which direction it should turn!

The second opinion is different, it seems that the Ukraine crisis is an opportunity for the US to "damage" the relationship between Western Europe and Russia - which has always been a concern of the US. Therefore, the Ukraine crisis is only a temporary pause for the "pivot" strategy to Asia, but the next step of the US is to establish a foothold on both sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific. But whether fast or slow, feasible or not, and despite many doubts, it is clear that the "pivot" strategy to Asia, "strategic rebalancing" of the US has, is and will continue to heat up the political life of the entire Asia - Pacific region.

Phuong Hoa