APEC summit-related diplomacy

By Harvey Stockwin

This is the first of two articles examining the diplomatic moves of leaders before and after the recent APEC meeting in Bogor.

SINGAPORE (JP): The old Philamerican relationship was not revived. South Korea made its growing regional presence felt. China and Vietnam drained away a little of the tension in their problematical relationship -- the second biggest headache for East Asian security.

These were some of the results of the flurry of bilateral "summit diplomacy" which accompanied the recent gathering of eighteen leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at Bogor in Indonesia.

U.S. President Bill Clinton tried to improve the once close ties between the Philippines and the United States by stopping off in Manila on his way to Indonesia. Early plans for the Philippine visit envisaged a Clinton call at either the former naval base at Subic Bay or at General Santos City in Mindanao.

Either choice would have been better than the one chosen. General Santos City is a fast developing area of the Philippines' major southern island, which has seen a growth of Philippines and American investments. It is one of the few cities in the Philippines which offers Filipinos improving prospects for employment at home, rather than encouraging them to seek work overseas (as most of the other cities' residents do).

Subic is being changed from a deserted naval base into an industrial park, and the huge U.S. air freight carrying company Federal Express recently decided to make its regional base there. So either call would have given Clinton a good chance to make his point about the increased importance of Philippine-American economic relations.

Instead, Clinton chose for his photo opportunity in the Philippines a visit to the World War II fortress at Corregidor and the large U.S. cemetery in Manila mainly for those who died in World War II. But on the one hand, it was too soon to properly commemorate the retaking of Corregidor, too late to remember its 1942 loss to the Japanese.

On the other hand, World War II commemorations are simply not Clinton's strong suit. He looks as if he feels out of place, and it shows. As a "policy wonk" he has a better grasp of the present than most national leaders possess. But he seems to have a very weak feel for the past, for history.

So while the mere fact that a U.S. president visited its former colony for the first time in twenty years was a plus for the formerly "special relationship", Clinton really did not connect with Filipino hearts and minds.

There was one moment tailor-made for giving an old alliance fresh thrust. That would have been for Clinton to return, late last October, to the Philippines on the 50th anniversary of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's return to Leyte. But that would have involved making a special trip, plus putting the Philippines first, before midterm election campaigning. Only Gen. MacArthur accorded the Philippines that high a priority, and he never fought an election.

Another leader indulging in pre- and post-summit diplomacy was South Korean President Kim Young-sam. Kim visited Manila before Clinton and then, after a brief state visit to Indonesia (in addition to the APEC forum), went on to Australia.

Korean cynics aver that President Kim's increasing interest in distant diplomacy is but a democratic diversion. They suggest that as his poll ratings have declined, due to several domestic controversies, so the president's hope has been to recover his standing at home through trips abroad.

There may be some truth in this -- if only because at home Kim faces the rough and tumble of a fairly vibrant democracy. It would have been impossible for him to sustain last year's high approval of his performance, with polls often running at between 80 and 90 percent in his favor. Abroad, it would seem that Kim regains some of the authoritarian aura that his predecessors always enjoyed.

Whether from nationalist habit or bureaucratic encouragement, foreign travels take Kim back to a position of undisputed leadership, at least as far as the Korean press is concerned. What he does and says always gains prior media attention. Sometimes his hosts in distant lands hardly get mentioned at all in the Korean press. Even at the APEC forum, the South Korean leader was reported as leading the discussions, and the press barely restrained itself from describing him as the main initiator of APEC's free trade goals.

To be fair, there is risk in all this for Kim Young-sam. South Korean farmers are, if anything, even more opposed to free trade than their Japanese counterparts. Kim's poll slide was exacerbated by his government's agreeing early this year to the original GATT compromise which brought the Uruguay Round to a successful conclusion.

So the authoritarian tone of some of the press coverage of his travels, plus the emphasis that he is in command, may help insert nationalism in place of protectionist chauvinism.

There is also good common sense for any South Korean leader to make Korea far better known in Southeast Asia and Oceania. South Korea's dynamic economy is infiltrating into the distant corners of Asia. Business leaders were in Kim's entourage, looking for opportunities. Equally, South Korea needs assured supplies of raw materials for its ever-expanding industries. Economic diplomacy is also the name of the game for President Kim, as it is for President Clinton.

The Korean peninsula remains the most troubled and threatening part of East and Southeast Asia. But close behind comes the tense relationship which resulted in the last sizable war in the area -- the border war between China and Vietnam in 1979.