Obama’s Vietnam and Japan visits

S P SETH

The recent visit to Vietnam of the US President Barack Obama was epochal both for its imagery and substance. One just has to hark back to 1975 to the hurried evacuation of the US embassy personnel, when the North Vietnamese forces marched victoriously into Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City. It was a humiliating sight for a superpower to be pushed out by a guerrilla enemy after nearly 15 years of constant bombardment and military operations where Vietnam’s countryside was ravaged by the use of chemical Agent Orange, with anywhere between 1-2 million Vietnamese killed and many wounded and maimed and their offspring born deformed to this day. In the midst of it all, Vietnam not only survived but its communist regime prevailed and the country is now as normal as might be expected in the circumstances.

And now look at the rapturous welcome that greeted President Obama on his visit as if all was forgotten. Not only that there is now a fervent desire on both sides to forge a new relationship, bordering on a military alliance. During his visit, Obama announced the lifting of US arms embargo on Vietnam. During his three-day visit, unusual as it is considering their recent history, Obama announced that, “The United States is fully lifting the ban on military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for 50 years.”

What lies behind this transformation in US-Vietnam relationship from their once implacable enmity to an emerging strategic alliance? It has to be understood against a backdrop of China’s projection of power into Asia-Pacific region to the point that it is asserting sovereignty over a cluster of islands and islets in the South China Sea, also claimed by Vietnam and some other regional countries.  China has also created a string of artificial islands in its claimed area and built up military structures and facilities, thus turning much of the South China Sea into its exclusive waters that contain precious oil and gas reserves as well as fisheries.

The resultant control of the South China Sea will enable China, if it so wanted, to control the passage nearly $5 trillion worth of trade that flows through it as well movement of all sorts of ships that pass through these waters. With China’s emergence as a superpower and all the economic and military leverage that flows from it, the regional claimants to South China Sea islands have very little countervailing power to China’s sovereignty claims sourced from old history. However, with the US turning its ‘pivot’ or ‘re-balancing’ act to Asia-Pacific region to forge a coalition of regional countries, Beijing’s task of completing its historical mission is not going to be all that easy. It will face tough opposition.

Not surprisingly, China is not happy with the US seeking to ‘stir up’ trouble in the region. Writing in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, Xu Bu, China’s ambassador to 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) reportedly said, “It is no coincidence that the changes in US policy [to rebalance China] have been followed by some South-east Asian countries making changes to their policies on the South China Sea issue.” And he added that, “The tension in South China Sea was intentionally churned and hyped [by the US].”

Commenting on Obama’s Vietnam visit, China’s official Xinhua news agency said: “It is welcome that Vietnam improves its ties with any other country, including the United States. However, such rapprochement should not be used by the United States to damage the strategic interests of a third country [China].” In other words, China sees its sovereignty as legally and historically valid and believes that, but for the US ‘meddling’, the regional countries will have no choice but to come to terms with the new situation.

At a recent international security forum in Singapore, Admiral Sun Jianguo said forcefully---responding to the US Defence Secretary, Ash Carter’s, remarks that  China risked erecting a “Great Wall of self-isolation--- that “We [China] do not make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble.” He added, “ China will not bear the consequences, nor will it allow any infringement on its sovereignty and security interest, or stay indifferent to some countries creating chaos in the South China Sea.”

China sees the US as an external power and would rather like it to remain out of Asia-Pacific region strategically. But the US doesn’t see it this way. It regards itself as much a regional power as China with its large Pacific coast, and vital economic and strategic interests by virtue of its alliances and old and new friendships, as with Vietnam. It is sending aerial and naval patrols to assert  ‘freedom of navigation’ in the vicinity of Beijing-claimed islands/islets, one of which almost led to a Chinese intercept, at least that is how the US saw it. All these activities, with China projecting its power by setting up military structures, and the US and its regional allies, like the Philippines, challenging it, is turning the region into a veritable tinder box.

The Philippines has taken the sovereignty issue to a UN court in Hague for arbitration, with China refusing to submit to its jurisdiction. If the court’s decision goes in the Philippines favour, as is generally expected, it is going to further complicate the situation. Lately, the sovereignty issue regarding another group of islands is also starting to feature in China’s relations, this time with Indonesia. Against such backdrop of rising regional tensions, Obama’s Vietnam visit and lifting of ban on the US arms sales to that country is indicative of how serious the situation is getting in the Asia Pacific region.

President Obama’s Vietnam visit was followed up by his trip to Japan, another country with contested sovereignty with China over a group of islands’ in East China Sea. In East China Sea, the two countries have almost come to blows a few times. The US is Japan’s security partner in the region. Their alliance has got even stronger against the backdrop of China’s power projection in the region. Tokyo has relaxed some of the pacifist features of its post-WW11 constitution with a view to meet new security challenges from China.

Apart from highlighting US-Japan security alliance, an important feature of Obama’s Japan trip was his visit to Hiroshima, the first Japanese city (Nagasaki was the second) subjected to US atomic bombing in WW11 that out rightly killed about 140,000 of its people, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Obama is the first US President to have visited Hiroshima. This gesture came as close to an apology, without a formal phraseology. And this should further strengthen US-Japan relations.

Note: This article first appeared in the Daily Times.