Clinton Tries to Defuse Asian Tension
HONOLULU — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her travels this year, as she did last year, by flying across the Pacific rather than the Atlantic. But this time, her itinerary is more urgent. With tensions rising between the United States and both Japan and China, Asia has emerged as a diplomatic hornet’s nest, even beyond the perennial threat of North Korea.
Katsuya Okada, Japan's foreign minister, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton met with Japan’s foreign minister in Hawaii on Tuesday to try to defuse tension from a dispute over relocating an American military base on the island of Okinawa. The talks did not yield any breakthroughs, and afterward, it was clear the two sides were still far apart.
“We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. Three times, she indicated that the Obama administration was not open to any compromise.
Mrs. Clinton also said it was premature to comment on China’s announcement late Monday that it had successfully tested its first land-based missile defense system — a move analysts said was intended to signal Beijing’s pique at the administration’s decision to sell weapons to Taiwan.
She said the United States had expected the test and played down speculation that it was a rebuke for American actions, like the sale of missile defense equipment to Taiwan.
“I do not think it is connected to any other action or event,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We have followed the Chinese development of aerospace capacity for quite some time, and this had been foreshadowed some weeks ago.”
Chinese officials have condemned the sale of missiles to Taiwan, which they view as a renegade province. Obama administration officials say they are merely fulfilling a deal negotiated by the Bush administration.
Relations between China and the United States have been further complicated by Beijing’s reluctance to impose sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and by differences over climate policy, which were accentuated at the tumultuous Copenhagen climate meeting last month.
“There are obviously, with any two nations as with any two people, differences of opinion,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Next week is the 50th anniversary of the security treaty between Japan and the United States, and Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Okada both proclaimed the alliance strong. But the milestone has been marred by the standoff over Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, on Okinawa.
In 2006, Japan and United States agreed to move the base to a less populated part of the island. Japan’s new coalition government, however, has refused to carry out the shift. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama campaigned for moving the base off Okinawa or even out of Japan altogether.
The Japanese government, Mr. Okada said, will propose a site for the base in May, after talks with junior parties in the coalition, which are even more stridently opposed to the agreement.
Noting that the government was studying alternative sites, Mr. Okada said, “We will come up with a solution so there will be minimum impact on the U.S.-Japan alliance.”
Mrs. Clinton said she was sympathetic to political sensitivities in Japan, but she left little doubt that American patience was wearing thin. “It is important to move on Futenma,” she said. Other American officials said they expected the Japanese to cobble together a compromise.
Later Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton delivered a speech on American security strategy in Asia.
Noting that Honolulu is President Obama’s hometown and that he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, Mrs. Clinton said the administration was determined to deepen America’s engagement in the region.
“America’s future is linked to the future of this region, and the future of this region depends on America,” she said. She called for strengthening the alphabet soup of regional security and economic organizations. In a show of commitment, she said she was headed to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, far-flung places to which an American secretary of state rarely goes.
Of course, that also allows her to escape the chatter in Washington generated by a new book on the 2008 presidential campaign, “Game Change,” in which the authors report unflattering details about her and her husband.
Asked whether she wanted to comment on one such detail — that she had lamented the election matchup of Mr. Obama and John McCain, saying it was a “terrible choice” for the American people — Mrs. Clinton smiled and slowly shook her head.
“But I have a lot to say about Asia,” she said.
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