What’s on the Cards When Obama Meets Thein Sein?
| By SIMON ROUGHNEEN | Saturday, November 14, 2009 |
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SINGAPORE — Continuing with the latest in a series of image-rebuilding foreign policy speeches, US President Barack Obama proclaimed himself “America’s first Pacific President” in Tokyo earlier today.
His address touched on a wide array of issues, from the US-Japan alliance to China’s emerging global clout and North Korean nuclear ambitions. Foreshadowing his meeting with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore tomorrow, Obama also said that Washington’s new policy of talking to Burma’s military junta does not mean an end to sanctions, unless “there are concrete steps toward democratic reform.”
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| US President Barack Obama delivers a speech in Tokyo on Saturday. (Photo: AP) |
Making a subtle overture to the junta, which is thought to shy from reform due to a belief that only the military can hold the country together, Obama said that democratic reform can bring Burma “true security and prosperity.”
While the US-Asean meeting will encompass discussions on trade and growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, Obama is expected to raise Burma with the ten Asean leaders, who will include Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein among their number.
Speaking in Singapore earlier this week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked that China, India and Asean chair Thailand collaborate with the US in trying to bring about change in Burma.
Obama needs to take the opportunity tomorrow to advocate for a more forceful Asean policy in Burma—a move that would be welcomed by Burmese exiles and opposition groups.
Obama “should urge Asean to echo the US view that without the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, the 2010 elections will not be recognized as credible,” Aung Din, the executive director of the US Burma Campaign, told The Irrawaddy.
Given concerns over an apparent softening of US human rights advocacy, Obama might need to make a forceful statement to Asean leaders tomorrow, and follow this up with an unequivocal affirmation that the US will not lift sanctions without credible reform in Burma.
At the Asean Summit held in Thailand last month, there was scant mention of Burma, giving the impression that Asean was passing the buck onto the US. Both Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told media that engagement was the best policy toward Burma, giving the impression that they thought the US was about to lift sanctions unconditionally.
“It is very important that President Obama act to clear up the misunderstanding within the region over the new US position on Burma,” said Benedict Rogers, the author of a biography of Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
“The new engagement approach is wrongly perceived by Asean and others in Asia as a softening of US policy, which may even result in the abandonment of sanctions. As a result, Asean countries are interpreting it as an excuse for them to relax and continue with their own soft approach, just at a time when some Asean members had been showing some encouraging signs of strengthening their stand,” Rogers told The Irrawaddy in an email.
At the same time, Obama could tell Thein Sein tomorrow that the US is sincere about easing sanctions, if the junta carries out reforms. The Burmese military rulers remain distrustful of outsiders, according to most analysts, and might not trust the good intentions of the Obama administration.
Obama’s voice should carry more weight with Thein Sein than that of Clinton or any other senior official, such as Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who traveled to Burma recently for the first high-level diplomatic visit to the country by a US official in 14 years.
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