U.S. policy on Asia seen steady in new Bush govt<\/p>\n
Karl Malakunas, Agence France-Presse\/Singapore<\/p>\n
Asian governments will miss Colin Powell's moderating voice in
\nthe Bush administration but his resignation as secretary of state
\ndoes not necessarily signal a more hawkish U.S. approach to the
\nregion, analysts said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Asian leaders enjoyed working with Powell, whose accommodating
\nstyle contrasted with those of the so-called neo-conservatives
\nwithin President George W. Bush's team such as Defense Secretary
\nDonald Rumsfeld, they said.<\/p>\n
\"Colin Powell was a very pleasant personality to deal with,\"
\nformer Association of Southeast Asian Nations secretary general
\nRodolfo Severino told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"He was not abrasive and he tried to understand the other side
\nof the argument. His style was very much appreciated (by Asian
\nleaders). People certainly liked him a lot.\"<\/p>\n
Brian Bridges, a North Asian expert from Hong Kong's Lingnan
\nUniversity, agreed that Powell was seen as an important
\nmoderating influence to Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and
\nthe other hawks of the Bush administration.<\/p>\n
\"Many Asian governments were disturbed by the style of the
\nBush administration but they probably saw Powell as the slightly
\nmore human face,\" Bridges said.<\/p>\n
\"I think there's been a general Asian respect for him as a
\ndiplomat and they found the message from the Bush administration
\nhighly more palatable expressed through his style rather than
\nthrough the style of Rumsfeld or Cheney.\"<\/p>\n
The Japan government's spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary
\nHiroyuki Hosoda, summed up on Tuesday the views of many in Asia
\nin expressing disappointment at Powell's resignation, which was
\nannounced on Monday.<\/p>\n
\"As an extremely well-balanced secretary of state, he did a
\ngreat job,\" Hosoda said.<\/p>\n
However disappointment over Powell's exit was being tempered
\nby the general view that his likely successor as secretary of
\nstate, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, would adopt a
\nsimilarly soothing approach.<\/p>\n
\"As much as Colin Powell has been seen as a bulwark against
\nthe neo-conservative push, it seems to me that Condoleezza Rice
\nmay play the very same role,\" Tan See Seng, an assistant
\nprofessor at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic
\nStudies (IDSS), told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"She strikes me as someone who very much fits into the same
\nconventional, traditional, realistic mold as Powell. She doesn't
\nseem like someone who would toe the neo-conservative line.\"<\/p>\n
Michael Fullilove, the global issues program director at
\nAustralia's Lowy Institute for International Policies, said it
\nwas too early to conclude that Powell's exit was a defeat for the
\nmoderate forces.<\/p>\n
\"It is certainly true that Colin Powell was the lone
\ninternationalist voice in the Bush administration,\" Fullilove
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"(But) in my mind Condeleezza Rice is not an ideological
\nperson. She's always struck me more as a manager than a policy
\nmaker.\"<\/p>\n
Severino also said that Rice \"seemed to be a very balanced,
\nsober person\".<\/p>\n
While the analysts' said it was too early to determine what
\nthe major foreign policy changes under a re-elected Bush
\nadministration will be, they agreed the U.S. approach to Asia
\nwould likely see no drastic revamp.<\/p>\n
This included all the major Asian issues that the U.S. is
\ninvolved in, such as the six-party talks on North Korea, the
\nlong-running China-Taiwan dispute and the regional theater of the
\nwar on terrorism.<\/p>\n
\"I don't see any significant changes in a second Bush
\nadministration as far as the Asia Pacific is concerned,\" the
\nIDSS's Tan said.<\/p>\n
Tan emphasized the Bush administration's foreign policies in
\nAsia were generally inclusive and multilateralist, in contrast to
\nits global reputation for unilateralism.<\/p>\n
On North Korea, Fullilove and Lingnan University's Bridges
\nsaid the United States would remain involved in the six-party
\ntalks, albeit with a lack of enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
\"What other options have they got other than six-party
\ntalks?,\" Fullilove said.<\/p>\n
Bridges said he did not agree with speculation that if the
\nUnited States managed to deal with its problems in Iraq, it would
\nthen focus on North Korea, which is along with Iran one of the
\ntwo surviving members of Bush's \"axis of evil\".<\/p>\n
\"My personal view is that Iran is possibly a faster rising
\nissue and the Bush administration would like to keep North Korea
\non the back burner for the time being,\" he said.<\/p>",
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