A broader Asian agenda

During the Cold War, Washington saw its role in Asia as clearly defined -- containing the spread of Soviet-backed Communism. The region today defies easy classification. While East Asia is the world's fastest-growing region economically, it is also an arena where four of the world's most powerful countries -- Japan, China, Russia and the United States -- are awkwardly working out new relationships with each other. The Clinton administration has yet to devise a policy that adequately balances American economic and security interests in this vital region.

President Clinton's current trip underscores the need for such a policy. The trip's ostensible centerpiece, an Asia-Pacific economic conference in Manila this weekend, is largely an empty event. Two years ago, Pacific leaders agreed to create a regional free-trade zone by 2020. But there is no real consensus for taking concrete steps toward this laudable goal. The more vital business is likely to come in side discussions among some of the 16 leaders assembled in Manila. Clinton, for example, is discussing economic and security issues individually with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan and Presidents Fidel Ramos of the Philippines, Kim Young Sam of South Korea and Jiang Zemin of China.

China's economic clout and rising military power are reshaping relations among Asian nations. Japan, an economic but not a military power, is anxiously studying Chinese intentions. But Tokyo also understands that any attempt to rebuild Japanese military power would stir angry memories throughout Asia of past Japanese aggression.

South Korea, guarding the last military frontier of the Cold War, worries about a second Korean War and a militarily resurgent Japan. Suspecting that Washington is too complacent about both dangers, it is edging closer to Beijing as a strategic insurance policy. Meanwhile Russia, though militarily weak, cannot be discounted. Traditionally a rival of both Japan and China, it now seems interested in warmer relations with both.

The United States can serve its own interests and the region's by helping to maintain a security balance in the area. As long as China, Russia and Japan do not feel threatened, they can be encouraged to assert themselves economically rather than militarily, sustaining the surge toward prosperity that has characterized the region in the last decade.

The United States must recognize that Russia has a legitimate role to play in the region. Washington can work with both Moscow and Tokyo to encourage the return to Japan of islands Moscow seized at the end of World War II.

American relations with Japan, after several years of trade confrontations, have settled down as Japan struggles to climb out of a recession. This has given the Clinton administration a chance to reemphasize security cooperation. Tokyo can continue to rely on Washington for protection from external threats while expanding its own participation in United Nations and other international peacekeeping operations.

China presents the hardest challenge. Washington and Beijing are talking again after last spring's chill over Taiwan. But the administration has not found effective ways to moderate Chinese behavior or hold Beijing to the agreements it has worked out with the United States and other countries. Clinton's ability to establish a more productive dialog with China will be an essential measure of his success in Asia during his next term.

Over the last four years, the Clinton administration has positioned America to compete effectively in Asia's booming markets. But the growth of those markets now depends on assuring stability in the region. That will require more than a strategy to sell American cars in Japan and to protect American intellectual property in China.

-- The New York Times