[The president is still scheduled to make the
trip to Bali, Indonesia, to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit
meeting, where Asian leaders are gathering to discuss economic issues, and then
to Brunei for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
But White House officials made it clear that those stops might also be
canceled, depending on developments.]
 |
Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel prepared to board his plane on Wednesday in Seoul, en route
to Tokyo.
|
SEOUL,
South Korea — In the four years since he announced a shift in
American foreign policy and defense strategy to counter China’s ambitions in
Asia, President Obama has found himself perpetually sidelined from his goals by
a series of escalating conflicts in the Middle East and budget crises at home.
A long-planned trip to the area in two weeks has been cut back because of the
government shutdown that began Tuesday.
But Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is forging
ahead with a military agenda that reflects the Obama administration’s rising
security and economic interests in the region and his own passions for Asia.
After only seven months in the job, Mr. Hagel is on his third trip as defense
secretary to the region this week, including four days in South Korea — the
longest stay by an American defense secretary in a generation — and a stop in
Japan.
The Asian rebalance is a priority, Mr. Hagel
said at a news conference Wednesday here with the South Korean defense
minister, Kim Kwan-jin. “You always adjust your resources to match your
priorities.”
The White House announced on Wednesday that
President Obama had canceled his trip next week to the Philippines and Malaysia
because of the budget standoff in Washington. Secretary of State John Kerry
will lead delegations to both countries instead.
The president is still scheduled to make the
trip to Bali, Indonesia, to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit
meeting, where Asian leaders are gathering to discuss economic issues, and then
to Brunei for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
But White House officials made it clear that those stops might also be
canceled, depending on developments.
For Mr. Hagel, whose bruising January confirmation hearing, along with Mr. Obama’s
diminished interest in the Pentagon, has left him overshadowed by his former
Senate colleague, Secretary of State John Kerry, the so-called Asia pivot is
both a test and an opportunity.
“With Secretary Kerry spending most of his time
and energy on the Middle East, additional responsibility has fallen on Hagel to
demonstrate the United States commitment to Asia,” said Ely Ratner, the deputy
director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American
Security. But, said Mr. Ratner, Mr. Hagel’s efforts are “arguably at the cost
of reinforcing perceptions in the region that the rebalancing policy is
primarily a military endeavor.”
In Washington, some defense policy experts criticize
the policy, saying it amounts to little militarily and is largely a repackaging
of existing policies. Further, the policy has antagonized the Chinese, which
some experts believe is needless.
Pentagon officials say they are managing the
tensions while devoting new resources to a region of increased strategic
interest after 12 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also argue that
the “pivot” is meant to be focused on diplomacy and trade, but that their military might in the region — four
littoral combat ships to be deployed in Singapore, increased joint military
exercises with Asian countries and 2,500 Marines in Darwin, Australia – is more
visible.
Although Mr. Obama has cut military spending in
various parts of the world, it has remained largely unchanged in Asia. By 2020
the Pentagon plans to deploy 60 percent of its warships in the Pacific and 40
percent in the Atlantic, compared with the current 50-50 split.
Mr. Hagel’s personal interest in the region come
from his father, a tail gunner who served in Southeast Asia and who died of a
heart attack when Mr. Hagel was 16, and from Mr. Hagel’s frequent trips there
as president of the U.S.O. and as a business executive. As a Republican senator
he brought Asian ambassadors to his home state, Nebraska, to give lectures and
visit rodeos, and when he retired, it was the ambassador to South Korea who
served as a host for his party.
The greatest American threat in the region
remains North Korea, which has a two-pronged nuclear weapons program and what
defense officials say is the second-largest chemical weapons stockpile in the
world. The secretive, isolated North Korean government cycles through regular
provocations.
“This is probably the only place in the world
where we have always a risk of confrontation,” Mr. Hagel said during a visit to
the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea this week, as North
Koreans gawked from a dozen feet away. “So it’s a very important location that
we need to pay attention to. There’s no margin of error up here.”
At the DMZ, an eerie zone just outside Seoul
where guided tours and blue armbands for guests are part of the visit, the two
sides communicate via a bullhorn.
Although Mr. Hagel’s visit to South Korea was
largely focused on celebrating the country’s 60-year alliance with the United
States, he discussed plans for South Korea to take over by 2015 operational
command of its own troops in wartime, which would end an arrangement giving
that authority to an American commander.
Americans have been pressing the issue for
years, but the South Korean government remains leery that its military could
command its own troops under an attack from North Korea. “They know they need
to develop some advance capabilities,” said Gen. J. D. Thurman, who will retire
this week as the commander of American forces in South Korea. “But it takes a
while to do that.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Hagel will depart for Japan,
which is seeking to enhance its own armed forces through changes to its
Constitution, a sea change that America is watching with some trepidation. The
stop will also include a joint meeting with Mr. Hagel, Mr. Kerry and their
Japanese counterparts on defense and diplomatic cooperation.
“Because of what else is going on in the United
States and the world,” Mr. Hagel said, referring to recent events in the Middle
East, the budget showdown in Congress and diplomatic developments with Iran,
" “it’s important that we spend some time out here.”
Gerry Mullany contributed reporting from Hong
Kong.
