Obama's pivot east fuels an Asian Cold War

[rug]

Obama's pivot east has done little to contain China's strategic expansion.



Obama listens to remarks by Modi in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC [Reuters]

by Tom Hussain
Tom Hussain is a journalist and Pakistan affairs analyst based in Islamabad.
1 HOUR AGO

The balance of power in South Asia has been decisively tipped in India's favour by the US decision on Tuesday to grant it "major defence partner" status and support its accession to influential clubs of "good" nuclear states.

The joint statement that emerged after US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at the White House describes an emerging defence partnership in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, an obvious response to China's increasingly muscular assertions in those maritime theatres.

In seeking to contain China, however, the US has set aside long-standing diplomatic principles.

Hitherto, nuclear-armed states could not gain access to the finest US military technology - specifically, equipment with dual-use applications in strategic weapons - without becoming a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/06/obama-pivot-east-fuels-asian-cold-war-160612062537847.html

Lovely.

[Trust Buster]

1. Of course our pivot to Asia is not to China's liking. They wish to dominate that region of the world

Asia, is and will continue to be, the largest growth market in the world. The TPP is just one prong in this pivot to Asia and away from the Middle East. To reject the very idea of a trade deal with Asia will only hand the Asian markets to the Chinese on a silver platter thus excluding America and it's workers from the world's largest emerging market.

[rug]

2. Think what you will about the TPP, it doesn't need to be backed up by nuclear weapons.

[Hortensis]

4. It's a point, all right. Allowing alignment of whole regions

of nations against each other is not exactly healthy for the planet. And certainly the many other nations of east Asia really do not care to find themselves part of a hegemony controlled by China.

Poor President Obama can do nothing right according to people who see local wage rates as the only issue that has to be addressed.

[AngryAmish]

3. This has been coming a long time under several administrations.

It was dumb to surround China with enemies under Bush. It was just as dumb when Obama did it.

Vietnam, Japan, S. Korea, India...the US either has or wants them to be client states. We are working on Myanmar. The US lead free Tibet movement.

We are antagonizing China. It is dumb to do so. TPP is just another tool to do this.

[Hortensis]

5. Of course this is an extremely complex and fluid situation.

Obama had no control over what previous presidents did, he can only deal with the situations of the world now. There are far more than only 2 opinions what he should be doing.

Btw, what have been the parts played by the dozens of major power players in each of these nations, all of whom are very powerful and regard outsiders like Americans with arrogant contempt and others of their region with everything from centuries-old friendships to implacable enmity? Do some imagine it'd all be harmony and no nukes over there if we didn't exist?

Imo, a little more humility and less outraged certainty from DUers would be in order.

[AngryAmish]

6. A little less horseshit, spoonfed a bit at a time, is in order.

This surrounding of China (and Russia also btw) is complete American Deep State bullshit.

No one, at the highest levels of American academia, government and media disagrees. They all go to TED talks, go to grad school together, fuck each other, and agree on the same things.

Yet they, in general, are fools.

[bemildred]

7. India’s Narendra Modi resets compass for post-Obama America

Other than the two great Hindu festivals of Holi in spring season and Diwali in the autumn, one occasion the Indian elites are sure to burst into sheer ecstasy is when a summit meeting takes place with the United States.

The media elites have been beside themselves with joy and excitement this week, old war horses have come out of the woodwork and everywhere the talk is about a new ‘symphony’ in the US-relationship – ‘Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive / But to be young was very heaven’, as the English poet William Wordsworth wrote.

To be sure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US on June 6-7 has ended in a trail of media hype. But then, a gnawing doubt lingers: Is the hype real or orchestrated by the establishment? The tell-tale signs are far too many.

Surprisingly, in the run-up to the visit, there was nothing of the usual rhetoric at the official or Track II levels. Even the seasoned choir boys kept their fingers crossed.

http://atimes.com/2016/06/prime-minister-modi-resets-compass-for-post-obama-america/