Washington: Terming Asia as "indispensable"
to meeting global security and humanitarian challenges, the
Obama Administration has said India, China and Japan are among
key players in the region and insisted that its first State
Dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "no accident".
"It was no accident that the first state visit hosted by
President and Mrs Obama was for an Asian leader, Indian Prime
Minister Singh," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a
major policy speech on Asia Pacific region at the East West
Centre, a think-tank, in Honolulu in Hawaii.
Her remarks came ahead of her fourth trip to the
Asia-Pacific region in less than a year as the Secretary of
State. She will travel to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and
Australia from January 14 to January 19.
"My first trip as Secretary of State was to Asia. In
fact, this will be my fourth to the region in the last 11
months," she said. "We are working to deepen our historic
ties, build new partnerships, work with existing multilateral
organisations to pursue shared interests and reach beyond
governments to engage directly with people in every corner of
this vast region."
"We start from a simple premise. America's future is
linked to the future of the Asia-Pacific region, and the
future of this region depends on America. The United States
has a strong interest in continuing its tradition of economic
and strategic leadership, and Asia has a strong interest in
the United States remaining a dynamic economic partner and a
stabilising military influence," Clinton said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 15:36