By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

President Obama’s inaugural visit to Asia was postponed due to the his and First Lady Michelle Obama’s participation in the memorial service on Tuesday for those killed in the Fort Hood tragedy.

Still, the President intends to tell Asian countries when he visits later this week that the U.S. is engaged and committed to strengthening alliances with Asia and helping Asian nations achieve prosperity and security, according to Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications.

Jeffrey Bader, Senior Director for East Asian Affairs for the National Security Council, said that the President plans to raise the issue of human rights while in China.

“I think the kinds of issues that are on our minds are the freedom of expression, access to information…and certainly Tibet. I have every reason to believe that the issue of Tibet will come up on the trip,” Bader said.

Bader did not foresee discussions with the Japanese government on the realignment of Futenma Air Base, which houses 47,000 U.S. military personnel on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. The base is set to relocate to a smaller facility in 2014.

“I don’t see the Okinawa base issue being a dominant or essential issue on this visit,” Bader said. “The new Japanese government is reviewing how it wishes to move forward on [the base issue].”

The President is scheduled to leave for Japan on Thursday, followed by visits to Singapore, China and South Korea.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) says that the U.S. can not be content with 110 mile high speed rail systems.

“If we do that we are absolutely consigning ourselves to second class citizenship compared to Asia and Europe. We have to find a way to build and finance true high speed rail,” said Rendell (0:35)

 

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By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Celia Canon talks to Bruce Klingner, an analyst for the Heritage Foundation, about North Korea’s recent underground nuclear tests and what can be done to halt Pyong Yang’s recent acceleration in its technological developments and trials. Klingner insists that China will be pivotal is sanctioning and stopping North Korea’s nuclear program.

However, Klingner also warns that this will not be an easy task, but that the government needs to stop praising China for its efforts when it could really do much more to involve itself in the international community’s sanctions. (1:01)

 

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By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News Service

If America is to remain an international superpower, it must control the world’s oceans, according to U.S. military and policy experts.

“The United States quite simply is a maritime nation,” said Michael Auslin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Our future is possibly more tied up in the Pacific than with Europe.”

“The more power diffuses to the international system and Asia, the harder it will be to protect the global commons and the more difficult it will be to protect maritime security,” said Ashley Tellis, senior associate at with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Tellis said that the interests between rising nations, like India and China, are not all shared by the U.S. and would be unreliable partners who would almost certainly take advantage of any global cooperation.

Tellis is skeptical of the concept that international maritime cooperation “is essentially an idea that is pivoted on the notion of cooperation, and it works best in a world where all nations have common interests.”

Historically, the domination of the seas has been vital to the continuing strength and viability of powerful countries. But America’s role as a global hegemony is in jeopardy as Asian nations, like China and India, are taking militaristic actions to control large bodies of oceans.

In 1994, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was officially enforced, which defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans. But before China signed the treaty, they extended their territorial waters to the continental shelf, which was much farther than the 12 miles stated in the original treaty.

America did not sign the agreement, which creates a global system of signals to aid in communication in order to prevent any misunderstandings.

According to Bernard Cole, a professor at the National War College, the Chinese view the situation as: America must “stay 200 miles off our coastline at all times and we won’t have any conflict.”

Japan is another major player within the Asian-Pacific region because of the strength of their economy and relations with America. But Japan itself is at a “crossroads toward rising or falling as a nation,” said retired Vice Admiral Hideaki Kaneda of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. “It is very critical in the long term to maintain this important maritime alliance for Japan and the United States.”

America’s shifting economic dominance and relations with Asia were discussed by Christopher Padilla, Undersecretary for International Trade at the US Department of Commerce, who spoke to a packed house at the American Enterprise Institute. He stressed the importance of forming free trade agreements with Asian countries, especially Korea and China.

According to Padilla, 60 percent of economic activity in Asian nations occurs within the continent, and the numbers are growing. He warned that continued stalling on the part of congress could result in huge economic losses for the United States.

The Undersecretary believes free trade agreements with nations like Korea are key to the United States’s continued influence in the region. Padilla stated that a hefty portion of the global GDP comes from Asia – nearly 40 percent – and the United States must solidify trade relations to ensure continued trade opportunities and economic superiority. In addition, he stressed the importance of continued dialogue between the East and West to facilitate both economic and international agendas.

Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Christopher Padilla says that the United States will cede its economic leadership in Asia if Congress fails to pass the Korea Free Trade Agreement, increasing the likelihood that the United States will be left out of future trade agreements. (0:44)

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks about the fight against terrorism. She claims that “it is an unfair fight,” and that though Americans may feel safer since the September 11 attacks, they are not yet safe and need to work to stay safer. (1:28)

 

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