The new US secretary of state's first foreign trip will be to China and other Asian states, writes Denis Staunton
HILLARY CLINTON will visit China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia later this month on her first foreign trip as secretary of state, highlighting the new US administration’s determination to upgrade relations with key allies in Asia.
“The secretary felt that going to Asia would send a tremendous signal to Asia and others in the world of the importance of Asia, particularly, to our foreign policy agenda,” said state department spokesman Robert Wood.
Mrs Clinton has called for “a comprehensive dialogue” with China, criticising the Bush administration for allowing Washington’s relationship with Beijing to become almost exclusively economic in nature.
“The state department will have an important role in engaging China,” Mr Wood said. “The Chinese are a major global player. And we want to see how we can partner with the Chinese to try and help resolve some of these horrible and horrific humanitarian situations we have that we’re dealing with around the globe.”
US secretaries of state have traditionally chosen Europe or the Middle East for their first overseas visits but the new administration has already sent high-level representatives to both regions. George Mitchell travelled to the Middle East last month following his appointment as President Barack Obama’s peace envoy and vice-president Joe Biden is in Munich today to address the annual security conference.
Mrs Clinton said yesterday that she was “very much concerned” by a Pakistan court’s release of Abdul Qadeer Khan, who operated an alleged nuclear proliferation network.
Nuclear non-proliferation is among the top issues at this weekend’s conference in Munich, where Iranian parliament speaker Ari Larijani yesterday complained about Washington’s past “double standards” on disarmament.
Mrs Clinton has promised to move quickly on renegotiating the strategic arms reduction treaty (Start) after talks stalled under the Bush administration.
Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov yesterday urged Washington to re-engage in disarmament talks but warned that the US missile shield expansion into Europe complicated negotiations.
“The leaders in this should be the United States and Russia because we are the biggest nuclear missile powers,” Mr Ivanov said.
Mrs Clinton said this week that she wants to work with Russia to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme, which Tehran claims is designed solely to produce civilian nuclear power but western governments fear has a military purpose.
“On behalf of our mutual concerns regarding Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, we are going to use smart diplomacy together to engage the international community,” Mrs Clinton said.
“We will do so including Russia as a co-operative partner because we intend to forge a more constructive relationship.”
China’s ambassador to Washington, Zhou Wenzhong, yesterday appealed to the US to help Chinese efforts to combat climate change, arguing that such co-operation is in America’s economic self-interest.
“Co-operation between our two countries on energy and environmental issues will enable China to respond to energy and climate change issues more effectively while at the same time offering enormous business opportunities and considerable return to American investors,” he said.