[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23384-23385]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

            SUSTAINED LEADERSHIP IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

 Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, as President Bush arrives in Sydney 
to take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC, leaders 
meeting, it is appropriate to take stock of America's role in the Asia-
Pacific region.
  America's future prosperity and security is directly tied to Asia. 
The region contains the world's fastest growing major economies, 
largest militaries, largest energy consumers and importers, and biggest 
contributors to global climate change. Some of the most critical items 
on our international agenda--such as ending North Korea's nuclear 
weapons program, developing ties to moderate Muslim states, building a 
sound global economy, achieving energy security, combating climate 
change, and responding to pandemic disease--are impossible to achieve 
without robust U.S. partnerships and sustained engagement in Asia.
  But despite the region's obvious importance, we have lost ground over 
the past seven years. The war in Iraq that should never have been 
authorized or waged has been an enormous distraction from the fight 
against al-Qaida, which has reconstituted itself in Afghanistan and 
Pakistan. In addition to the enormous costs in lives and resources, the 
war has also set back our standing and leadership in the world, and 
made it far more difficult for America to lead on critical issues. In 
Asia, a region that both wants and expects United States' leadership, 
this inattention has led to a decline in U.S. prestige and influence 
and has placed our national security interests in jeopardy.
  While America has been increasingly absent in Asia, China has 
promoted itself as an alternative to U.S. leadership. And with 
fundamental shifts in Asia's security and economy underway--a rising 
China, emerging India, a Japan seeking to become a more ``normal'' and 
assertive nation, and North Korea and South Korea presenting dangers 
and opportunities the United States cannot afford to stay on the 
sidelines.
  U.S. engagement is vital to maintaining the balance, and therefore 
peace, among potentially competing powers. In particular, the rise of 
China requires a clear-sighted view of our interests. A policy that 
seeks cooperation with China on security, economic, energy and 
environmental issues, maintains our military strength in the western 
Pacific, and strengthens our ability to compete must be a foundation of 
any successful policy.
  While APEC may be primarily an economic forum, it also offers the 
opportunity to engage all the region's leaders in a single setting--and 
to further our agenda across the range of key challenges. Too often, 
the U.S. has missed this opportunity.
  North Korea's nuclear ambitions already have had a profound impact on 
the region, and we must work to achieve a complete and verifiable 
elimination of all the DPRK's nuclear weapons capabilities and 
programs. I welcome the recent statement that North Korea will declare 
and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year. For far too 
long, the administration's disdain for diplomacy allowed the threat 
from North Korea to grow. While clearly the best time to negotiate with 
North Korea would have been before it tested a nuclear weapon, we must 
now verify North Korean compliance with their commitments. This will 
demand principled, aggressive, direct and sustained American diplomacy 
and leadership in the region.
  To build support against terrorists and prevail in the long-term 
battle against violent extremism, the U.S. must work closely with Asia, 
and Southeast Asia in particular, to develop effective strategies that 
both prevent acts of terrorism and root out al-Qaida elements. In 
addition to cooperative military, intelligence, and law enforcement 
efforts, this will require recognition that our relationships in the 
region are more complex and multidimensional than a narrow approach to 
counterterrorism. We should use the opportunity of the APEC forum to 
explore new initiatives to increase political, diplomatic, economic, 
educational, and cultural engagement.
  In terms of our shared prosperity, nowhere is America's sustained 
leadership more important in ensuring that the global economy remains 
vibrant. Together the economies of the APEC region account for over 
half the world's output and trade. It is essential that Asian countries 
work with us to ensure balanced growth and openness of the global 
trading system. This means shifting away from their traditional 
dependence on export-led growth and weak currencies toward stronger 
consumption at home and greater absorption of imports. The United 
States should negotiate only ``gold standard'' agreements with our 
Asian trading partners that stimulate growth and

[[Page 23385]]

jobs and contain binding labor and environmental standards and 
intellectual property protections.
  With the nations of East Asia working together through ASEAN, the 
ASEAN Regional Forum, APEC, the East Asia Summit and other regional 
arrangements, Asia is moving ahead--with or without us--to create a new 
regional architecture. Our interests demand that we re-engage to ensure 
trans-Pacific linkages are relevant and strong. That means developing 
new arrangements to meet new and rising challenges and transnational 
threats that stem from globalization--especially in the areas of 
pandemic disease, climate change, and energy security. The latest 
pandemic, an unidentified, highly contagious virus affecting pigs, is 
sweeping Asia. We must ensure that China and other affected countries 
cooperate in research and containing this and future outbreaks of 
disease. We should use the opportunity of APEC to further the dialogue 
about the growing problem of pandemics.
  On climate change and energy, the U.S. and Asia face many of the same 
challenges, and we ought to capitalize on those areas where our 
interests intersect. We have a mutual interest, for instance, in 
assuring adequate oil supplies, preventing disruptions in oil and gas 
exporting states and in the sea lanes, promoting greater efficiency, 
developing and expanding clean sources of energy, coordinating build-up 
and release of strategic stockpiles to prevent price spikes during 
supply emergencies, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The 
time is ripe for U.S. leadership on a serious and comprehensive energy 
and climate initiative in Asia that would ramp-up the development and 
deployment of efficiency-related technologies, establish an adequate 
research and development fund for carbon sequestration and related 
technologies, increase opportunities for U.S. businesses to capture a 
share of the region's burgeoning clean energy market, and create a 
forum to address supply security-related concerns.
  We will not be able to fight global climate change effectively unless 
the United States is able to lead the world toward a post-Kyoto 
Protocol framework that includes binding limits on the large projected 
growth in greenhouse gas emissions from China, India, and other Asian 
countries. The Bush administration's prolonged refusal to confront the 
challenges of climate change at home has robbed the United States of 
its ability to lead effectively in such efforts abroad. We should use 
the opportunity of APEC to discuss a new, comprehensive energy 
initiative in Asia to address the twin challenges of energy security 
and climate change.
  The U.S. also should work with its Asian partners to strengthen 
democracy. Nowhere is the need for building consensus more pressing 
than in Burma. Peaceful pro-democracy activists continue to put their 
lives on the line for freedom, and democratic nations should stand in 
solidarity with them. U.S. leadership is vital to any regional effort 
to press the military junta to achieve national reconciliation.
  The U.S. must resume an active leadership role in Asia. We cannot sit 
on the sidelines. We have too much at stake in Asia, in terms of our 
prosperity, security, energy, and health. If we are to protect and 
advance these interests, America must be a reliable and engaged 
partner. It is good that President Bush is traveling to Sydney for 
APEC, and I know we all wish him success at this important summit. But 
the time has long since passed to pursue a new path that reflects the 
importance of Asia to our national interests and enables the United 
States to play a greater and appropriate leadership role in the region. 
We cannot afford any more missed opportunities.

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