Powell gets support, defends U.S. image in Asia
Powell gets support, defends U.S. image in Asia
Elaine Monaghan , Reuters, Washington
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell shored up support for what will clearly be a messy, complex and long war on terror during an eight-stop tour from India and Pakistan to the Philippines that ended on Saturday.
He soothed suspicions of U.S. intentions post-Sept. 11 in six Southeast Asian nations including Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country and seen as the weakest link in fighting Islamic militancy in the region.
Powell's second tour built around an annual Asia-Pacific forum showed how ambivalent attitudes can be towards the United States -- and how tough a task it has improving a reputation for treating poorer states like pawns.
Fears of terrorism dominated the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Brunei. Powell signed a declaration with ASEAN vowing to share intelligence, block terrorist funds, tighten borders and crack down on forged travel documents.
In Indonesia, Powell started on a path of renewed military ties that were broken off because of the army's human rights record. He announced about US$50 million in counterterrorism aid, most of which will help build a modern police force but some of which will train the army, if Congress approves.
At most stops, Powell found himself having to deny Washington was planning to extend its military presence in the region.
Even though the only military exercise in the region linked directly to the post-Sept. 11 campaign involved 1,000 troops sent temporarily to train the Philippine army, protesters suspicious that Washington had bigger plans for domination clashed with police while Powell was in Manila.
But pro-American protesters also welcomed him, asking the United States to take the Philippines back as a protectorate.
Powell's trip showed the war on terrorism is not always as clearly defined in black and white as President George W. Bush's rhetoric sometimes suggests it is.
Powell had to contend with allies seeking to draw parallels between Sept. 11 and threats to their own interests in ways that clash with Washington's point of view.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov met Powell in Brunei and made a case for an international effort to crush Chechen and other Muslim rebels on Georgian soil.
Powell urged India and Pakistan to begin talks on Kashmir, India's only mainly Muslim state, center of a potential nuclear flashpoint and scene of attacks by Pakistan-based militants seen as "terrorists" by New Delhi but not under attack by the United States like the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan.
The picture of Islamic militancy fluctuates widely in Southeast Asia, a fact obscured by Bush's depiction of the world as "with us or against us," John Gershman, senior analyst at the Interhemispheric Resource Center, wrote recently in the U.S. Foreign Affairs magazine.
"Such a simplistic paradigm ignores the fact that many Islamic organizations genuinely oppose al-Qaeda (and similar extremist groups) yet also disapprove of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and other Bush administration policies, especially its Middle East strategy," Gershman wrote.
Thoughts of the Middle East were never far away during Powell's tour, and he said he got support for U.S. peacemaking in the region during his tour of India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.
But he had to reassure frequent critic Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, also a mainly Muslim nation, that Washington backs a Palestinian state as the way to make peace.
The U.S. labeling of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism is seen as highly controversial by critics because Pyongyang has not been linked to an attack in years.