When reflecting upon the completion of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent overseas trip to Asia, it would behoove European leaders to pay particular attention toward the timing, choice and resulting implications of this trip. Is it not within the sobering realm of possibilities that this decision may project a new direction from Washington concerning its long-term assessment and view regarding the overall diplomatic effectiveness, leverage and diminishing role which the EU will have in helping the United States address its most vital foreign policy objectives in the years to come? As President Barack Obama has broken with tradition by sending the nation’s chief diplomat on her first journey overseas to address Asian- American relations, this move could indicate that the Obama Administration has begun to re-orient and restructure its preferences concerning its strategic partnership with Europe.

At a press conference on her arrival in Tokyo, Clinton remarked, “I have come to Asia as my first trip as secretary of state to convey that America’s relationships across the Pacific are indispensable to addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the 21st Century.“ If in fact the United States sees fostering its current relationships with developing Asian nations for the sake of obtaining workable partnerships on behalf of its long term chief economic and geopolitical interests, and in doing so places greater priority and value relative to that of its European allies, how then is Europe to respond? One logical starting point would be for the EU to strive to further secure and ensure for itself a position of global diplomatic strength in the Far East. To do so it must seek to reinforce its partnership with the Americans through jointly shared efforts to address and resolve some of today’s most important issues facing Asia/Western relations.

A brief overview of the countries visited and the issues left outstanding which were in greatest likelihood discussed between Clinton and her counterparts may provide Europe with a valuable venue through which it could intervene by putting into place proactive policy initiatives designed to help strengthen its political clout and utility throughout the region.

NORTH KOREA

With the current and lurking threat of a major ballistic missile launching test along Musudanri on its east coast, the assistance of Europe to effectively promote the resumption of the Six-Party talks will prove critical to abating regional insecurity and promoting transparency behind the intentions of the North Korean regime. Secondly, a European commitment to facilitate under the appropriate conditions and enforcement mechanisms a new international organisation similar to that of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which was originally conditioned as a response to the American- North Korean agreed framework of 1994, wherein North Korea pledged a cessation of its nuclear program in exchange for the provision of resources needed for development and for improving the material well being of its people should be formed. If the proper enforcement mechanisms were put into place, the return to a similar arrangement today would create a viable alternative and incentive for North Korea to remove itself from political and economic isolation and make the eventual doctrinal transformation from self reliance to multilateral interdependence.

INDONESIA

To work more closely with the new American administration to use the largest Muslim country in the world to smooth and improve relations with the rest of the Muslim world

JAPAN

To encourage Japan to continue its effort to promote its contributions to world peacekeeping while simultaneously reaffirming and supporting Japan’s defense alliance with the West. A sound plan to restrain and limit North Korean nuclear ambitions would therefore discourage Japan from revising its constitution which would then pose the risk of a broad scale militarisation of Japan.

SOUTH KOREA

To promote and work towards the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. Additionally the establishment of a bureaucratic infrastructure to address and assess the long term benefits and disadvantages concerning whether or not the reunification of the two countries could ever be practically feasible and supportive of regional stability.

CHINA, ECONOMY, CLIMATE CHANGE, HUMAN RIGHTS

As there are those who may understand Clinton’s trip as being a product of inevitable circumstance and less of strategic volition, it then ought to be asked why it was Secretary Clinton that was sent as the leading and first representative of the administration. Considering the role and resulting harming effects to which the American influenced global financial crisis has had on East Asian Economies, would Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner have been a more appropriate choice? Underneath the underlying need for government– to-government assurances and strategic dialogue with China on this trip, lies the need for greater alignment and understanding of American/European trade arrangements and positions towards the China.

Although pressing and making encouraging demands towards China for further reform in human rights should never be taken off the table, for the time being it does not look as if the push for creating improvements in this area are very high on the agenda’s of the United States. Prior to her arrival in Beijing, Clinton remarked, that pressing China on Taiwan, Tibet, and human rights issues “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crises.” This statement as disheartening as it may be for some, only further highlights the grave importance behind the current issues at stake for the world’s top leaders. This may be the hardest thing for Europe to make concessions on should it choose to participate more extensively in the effort to obtain regional stability with North East Asia. However a temporary slowdown in progress in China could be offset by successful improvements within the living conditions of the peoples of North Korea. Through arriving at a compromise similar to that between the US and North Korea under Clinton in 1994, wherein North Korea relinquished its nuclear program in exchange for greater economic assistance would serve as a promising indicator and response to the alarming human right abuses and externalities that have occurred under the North Korean regime.

CHINA COLD TO US, BUT WARM TO THE EU?

Clinton’s reminder to the world that China has now exceeded the US as the No. 1 emitter of carbon dioxide has not proved productive. As many European nations on the other hand, have spoken with a more coherent voice and committed agenda toward their long term objectives on climate change, Europe may indeed prove more efficient and capable to use its resources of public awareness and political capital to affect a more flexible attitude and pragmatic response from the Chinese on the issue.

THE GRIM REALITY

At the same time it is however possible that the timing and selection of this trip to Asia over Europe goes beyond anything the Europeans could have prevented from ever having occurred. The magnetism of China’s diplomatic and economic pull on the United States arguably surpasses that of Europe not only because it is the largest holder of US debt at USD 1.7 trillion, or because China has the fastest growing economy in the world, or because Geithner believes the Chinese are manipulating their currency but rather it is primarily due to China’s growing geopolitical sphere of influence and the problems which result there from. In pursuit of its national interest to protect and maintain stability in its trade with China, the United States may seek to use its interdependent relationship as the apex from which it will be able to further secure and coordinate its endeavor’s throughout the region leaving Europe.