Asia-Pacific

Phony Relationship

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by: Erick San Juan

WHEN former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the East-West center in Hawaii in October 2010, she emphasized three key elements of the US engagement in Asia. The US’s relationship with its allies, their relations with partners across the Asia pacific region and US participation in the region’s multilateral institutions such as the ASEAN, APEC and EAS. (Source: China vs US: Military Conflict in the South China Sea, The World Outline)
Since then, there has been much talk of the mighty Uncle Sam’s return to Asia-Pacific region and even referred to himself (President Barack Obama) as ‘America’s first Pacific President’ without even consulting first his history books of America’s past leaders who deserves the title better.

With so much rhetoric and doublespeak of the real intentions of this pivot to the region, the truth of the matter is, they never left.

“They have maintained a forward military, political and economic presence in Asia as well as Europe since the Second World War. In short, they have pursued a political and economic open door policy underpinned by the ability to project force outside their own western hemisphere.” (Ibid) And in this case, the classic example of what I am trying to emphasize here is the US military presence in the Philippines. #OpinYon #opinion

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Pivot in Asia 2

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by: Erick San Juan

A LITTLE over a year now, Russia hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in its Pacific port of Vladivostok. Back then. Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that Moscow’s interest in Asia was rising as the traditional market for its energy and raw materials—the euro zone–wallowed in crisis and stagnation. And After America’s much-ballyhooed “pivot to Asia,” it is now Russia’s turn. (Source: Russia’s Pivot to Asia? by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D.)

Why not, given the following statistics, can Russia rebalance the two ‘superpowers’ in the Asia-Pacific region–United States and China. To wit: Russia produces more oil and natural gas than anyone else on the planet and because of this Russia is the number two oil exporter in the world and supplies 34 percent of Europe’s natural gas needs.

Since Vladimir Putin first became president of Russia, the Russian economy has grown at a very rapid pace. The following is from Wikipedia: #OpinYon #Asia #opinion

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