The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- As Obama's Asia 'pivot' falters, China steps into the gap
- Tropical Storm Karen drops to a depression off U.S. Gulf coast
- U.S. captures al Qaeda leader in Libya, also raids Somalia
| As Obama's Asia 'pivot' falters, China steps into the gap Posted: KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - When then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared two years ago "We are back to stay" as a power in Asia, the most dramatic symbol of the policy shift was the planned deployment of 2,500 U.S. Marines in northern Australia, primed to respond to any regional conflict. At this point in time, however, there is not a single U.S. Marine in the tropical northern city of Darwin, according to the Australian defence ministry. Two hundred Marines just finished their six-month tour and will not be replaced until next year, when 1,150 Marines are due to arrive. The original goal of stationing 2,500 Marines there by 2017 remains in place, but the lack of a U.S. presence there two years after the policy was announced underlines questions about Washington's commitment to the strategic "pivot" to Asia. President Barack Obama's cancellation of a trip this week to four Asian nations and two regional summits due to the U.S. government shutdown has raised further doubts over a policy aimed at re-invigorating U.S. military and economic influence in the fast-growing region, while balancing a rising China. While U.S. and Asian diplomats downplayed the impact of Obama's no-show, the image of a dysfunctional, distracted Washington adds to perceptions that China has in some ways outflanked the U.S. pivot. "It's symptomatic of the concern in Asia over the sustainability of the American commitment," said Carl Baker, director of the Pacific Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Hawaii. As embarrassed U.S. officials announced the cancellations last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Indonesia announcing a raft of deals worth about $30 billion and then in Malaysia to announce a "comprehensive strategic partnership", including an upgrade in military ties. He was en route to this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali and the East Asia Summit in Brunei, where Obama will no longer be able to press his signature trade pact or use personal diplomacy to support allies concerned at China's assertive maritime expansion. Since 2011, China has consolidated its position as the largest trade partner with most Asian countries and its direct investments in the region are surging, albeit from a much lower base than Europe, Japan and the United States. Smaller countries such as Laos and Cambodia have been drawn so strongly into China's economic orbit that they have been called "client states" of Beijing, supporting its stance in regional disputes. Leveraging its commercial ties, China is also expanding its diplomatic, political and military influence more broadly in the region, though its efforts are handicapped by lingering maritime tensions with Japan, the Philippines and several other nations. "For countries not closely allied with the U.S., Obama's no-show will reinforce their policy of bandwagoning with China," wrote Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. "BLUE-WATER" EXPANSION China, for instance, has been the biggest trade partner of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 2009, and its direct investments are surging, bringing with them increased economic and diplomatic influence. Chinese companies invested $4.42 billion in Southeast Asia in 2012, up 52 percent on the previous year, according to Chinese state media citing the China-ASEAN Business Council. Investments into neighbouring Vietnam rocketed 147 percent. China is demonstrating that it can deploy forces far beyond its coastal waters on patrols where they conduct complex battle exercises, according to Japanese and Western naval experts. Chinese shipyards are turning out new nuclear and conventional submarines, destroyers, missile-armed patrol boats and surface ships at a higher rate than any other country. Operating from increasingly modern ports, including a new naval base in the south of Hainan island, its warships are patrolling more regularly, in bigger numbers and further from the mainland in what is the most sweeping shift in Asia's maritime power balance since the demise of the Soviet navy. China's military diplomacy with Southeast Asia is rapidly evolving as it takes steps to promote what Beijing describes as its "peaceful rise". The Chinese navy's hospital ship Peace Ark recently treated hundreds of patients on a swing last month through Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia - its first such mission across Southeast Asia. Its naval vessels returning from regular international anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden have made calls in Southeast Asian ports, including Singapore and Vietnam. Still, analysts and diplomats say Beijing has a long way to go to catch up with not just the long-dominant United States, but other regional military powers such as Australia, Japan and Russia. "China has come late to the party," said Richard Bitzinger, a military analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. NOT A PATCHY PIVOT U.S. officials dismissed the notion that Obama's no-show would imply any weakening of the U.S. commitment to the region. Just last week, Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry were in South Korea and Japan to reaffirm the U.S. military commitment to the two key allies, and Kerry will fill in for Obama at the two Asian summits. "The bottom line is that the United States of America is not going to change one iota the fundamental direction of the policy under this president," Kerry said on Saturday. "I think everybody in the region understands. Everybody sees this (the cancellation of the visit) as a moment in politics - an unfortunate moment - but they see it for what it is." The United States has ramped up military funding and assistance to its close ally the Philippines, expanded military exercises with other nations and increased regional port visits. From only 50 ship visits in 2010, nearly 90 ships have visited the Philippines since January this year alone. Washington has stationed surveillance planes there and promised up to $30 million in support for building and operating coastal radar stations, all aimed at improving its ally's ability to counter China's naval encroachment in the disputed South China Sea that has alarmed several Asian nations. But talks to establish a framework agreement on a regular rotational U.S. military presence in the Philippines have yet to bear fruit, and are unlikely to have been helped by Obama's cancellation of his planned visit to Manila. For the Darwin deployment, a U.S. Senate Committee said in April that it would cost $1.6 billion to build lodgings for the Marines, but the Australian government last month called for only a first-stage A$12 million ($11.3 million) tender to construct new quarters at existing Australian barracks for around 350 marines. The economic leg of the pivot, negotiations for the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, has grown to 12 nations. But the complex three-year-old talks, which seek unprecedented access to domestic markets, are facing resistance in many countries and are unlikely to completed soon. A final deal would have to be approved by the U.S. Congress, raising the prospect of domestic politics again obstructing Asia ties. "Even if the administration could push through some agreement on the TPP, it's very unlikely there is going to be legislative success getting that through based on the acrimony that exists," said the CSIS's Baker. "...On the commercial side (of the pivot), there seems to be more rhetoric than action." (Additional reporting Greg Torode and David Lague in Hong Kong,; Jonathan Thatcher in Jakarta,; Jane Wardell in Sydney,; Manuel Mogato in Manila,; Paul Eckert in Washington,; Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Lesley Wroughton in Nusa Dua, Indonesia; Editing by Jason Szep and Raju Gopalakrishnan) |
| Tropical Storm Karen drops to a depression off U.S. Gulf coast Posted: NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Karen weakened to a depression as it hovered off the Louisiana coast on Saturday after earlier fears it would reach hurricane strength prompted the evacuation of some coastal areas and disrupted U.S. energy output in the Gulf of Mexico. Karen's top sustained winds dropped to 35 mph (55 kph) on Saturday night. That was down from 65 mph (105 kph) on Thursday and 50 mph (80 kph) on Friday, and National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said Karen had lost its status as a tropical storm. "All tropical storm warnings have been discontinued," the centre said in an advisory. "There are no coastal tropical storm warnings or watches in effect." Dry air and wind shear had been tearing the storm apart all day, even as it threatened to draw renewed strength from warm sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf. Karen was originally forecast to become a hurricane, and authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas south of New Orleans on Friday. Tropical storms carry winds of 39 mph to 73 mph (63 kph to 118 kph). The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama had earlier declared states of emergency to speed storm preparations, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency recalled some workers who were furloughed in the federal government shutdown to assist. Nearly two-thirds of oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was halted as Karen neared the Louisiana coast earlier this week, prompting oil and gas companies to shut platforms and evacuate workers in preparation for the storm. The Gulf accounts for about 19 percent of U.S. oil production and 6 percent of natural gas output. By late Saturday night, the slow-moving storm was centred about 185 miles (295 km) southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River. On its projected path, Karen was likely to move over the southeast tip of Louisiana early on Sunday before skirting the coasts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle on Sunday night and Monday. The storm could dump up to 3 inches (7.5 cm) of rain on some areas of the central Gulf Coast and Southeastern states through Monday before breaking up entirely, the hurricane centre said. (Additional reporting by Terry Wade in Houston, Greg McCune in Chicago and David Adams in Miami; Writing by Tom Brown; Editing by Peter Cooney) |
| U.S. captures al Qaeda leader in Libya, also raids Somalia Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces launched raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday, two weeks after the deadly Islamist attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, capturing a top al Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, U.S. officials said. The Pentagon said senior al Qaeda figure Anas al Liby was seized in the raid in Libya, but a U.S. official said the raid on the Somali town of Barawe failed to capture or kill the intended target from the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement. Liby, believed to be 49, has been under U.S. indictment for his alleged role in the East Africa embassy bombings that killed 224 people. The U.S. government has also been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program. "As the result of a U.S. counterterrorism operation, Abu Anas al Liby is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon spokesman George Little said without elaborating. CNN reported in September last year that Liby had been seen in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. It quoted Western intelligence sources as saying there was concern that he may have been tasked with establishing an al Qaeda network in Libya. That CNN report quoted counterterrorism analysts as saying that Liby may not have been apprehended then because of the delicate security situation in much of the country, where former jihadists hold sway. It quoted one intelligence source as saying that Liby appeared to have arrived in Libya in the spring of 2011, during the country's civil war. The Pentagon confirmed U.S. military personnel had been involved in an operation against what it called "a known al Shabaab terrorist," in Somalia, but gave no more details. One U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the al Shabaab leader targeted in the operation was neither captured nor killed. U.S. officials did not identify the target. They said U.S. forces, trying to avoid civilian casualties, disengaged after inflicting some al Shabaab casualties. They said no U.S. personnel were wounded or killed in the operation, which one U.S. source said was carried out by a Navy SEAL team. SOMALIA FIREFIGHT A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid at Barawe, about 110 miles (180 km) south of Mogadishu, was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed. Police said a total of seven people were killed. The New York Times quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. It quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying that the Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago in response to the al Shabaab assault on a Nairobi shopping mall last month in which at least 67 people died. "It was prompted by the Westgate attack," the official said. Residents said fighting erupted at about 3 a.m. (midnight GMT). "We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," Sumira Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters from Barawe on Saturday. "We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed." The New York Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support. The paper quoted a senior Somali government official as saying that the government "was pre-informed about the attack." Earlier, al Shabaab militants said British and Turkish special forces had raided Barawe, killing a rebel fighter, but that a British officer had also been killed and others wounded. Britain's Defence Ministry said it was not aware of any such British involvement. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official also denied any Turkish part in such an action. In 2009, helicopter-borne U.S. special forces killed senior al Qaeda militant Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a raid in southern Somalia. Nabhan was suspected of building the bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002. The United States has used drones to kill fighters in Somalia in the past. In January 2012, members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two aid workers after killing their nine kidnappers. Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, has described the Nairobi mall attack as retaliation for Kenya's incursion in October 2011 into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. It has raised concern in the West over the operations of Shabaab in the region. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart, Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooney) |
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