Brimming Southeast Asia faces serious challenges: Rice

Southeast Asia, with an enormous potential, faces serious challenges to adapt itself to new dynamics as major powers including India and China become more active in the region, a top US official has said.
"Southeast Asia is brimming with enormous potential. It is also facing serious questions about how to adapt as several major powers become more active in the region," said US National Security Adviser Susan Rice yesterday.
"China's rise, Japan's reemergence, India's revival, and, of course, America's rebalance - these dynamics are real, and they converge squarely in Southeast Asia," Rice told a Washington audience.
But she said these trends should come as an opportunity for greater cooperation, and not just competition among major powers.

"Southeast Asian nations should not have to choose sides among major powers, particularly when it comes to the US and China. Preserving the independence and sovereignty of all our partners in the region is at the heart of our policy toward Southeast Asia," she said.
In her remarks at the Brookings Institute, a Washington- based thinktank, Rice said America's relationship with China is important to the future of both the nations, to the region, and the world.

She said US President Barack Obama will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in November for "building a relationship that allows us to work together on shared interests, and to talk frankly about areas where we disagree, including human rights."

"At the same time, we continue to build stronger bilateral relationships with the nations of Southeast Asia and to work together as equals in multilateral fora so that individual nations can preserve their independence while fostering a group dynamic that reinforces collective norms and prevents large states from pressuring smaller ones," she said.
"That's another reason we have focused on strengthening Asia's regional institutions, like the East Asia Summit. We want to build and reinforce habits that encourage collaboration - to establish a common set of rights as well as responsibilities that ultimately ensures a level playing field for all," Rice said.

The United States, she reiterated, is a Pacific nation.
"Our shared future is as certain as our shared past. And, the people of the United States and the people of Southeast Asia share a common vision for that future - a future where daughters and sons can go to school and reach confidently for their dreams; where anyone can start a business and have a fair shot to succeed; where fundamental rights can never be restricted or denied," she said.