A year ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, upon arriving in Bangkok to take part in meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, announced: 'The United States is back.' On behalf of the Obama administration, she signed Asean's Treaty of Amity and Co-operation, which the Bush administration had refused to sign, thus paving the way for US participation in the East Asia Summit.
Now, a year later, Washington's determination not to be excluded from this part of the world is evident. Clinton told a meeting of the Asean Regional Forum in Hanoi last week that American national interest was involved in the resolution of disputes in the South China Sea, which Beijing tends to see very much as its own sphere of influence, if not under its sovereignty.
Southeast Asian countries welcome greater American involvement. Both the US and Russia have been invited to join the East Asia Summit, which will meet next year in Indonesia. Since President Barack Obama spent his boyhood years in Indonesia, taking part in a summit meeting there will have strong symbolic overtones and emphasise Washington's interest in the region.
Currently, the East Asia Summit comprises the 10 members of Asean as well as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Asean's invitation to the US and Russia is evidently intended to balance the growing influence of China in the region. The controversy in the South China Sea is an example of how the US can balance China's influence, to the benefit of Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
China, however, clearly does not appreciate a US role in the South China Sea. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi rejected Clinton's suggestion, saying that the disputes should be resolved bilaterally between China and individual Asean members and not be internationalised. Beijing is evidently cool to US membership in the East Asia Summit.
The concept of an East Asia Summit goes back to the early 1990s when then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad proposed an East Asia Economic Caucus, which was derided as a 'caucus without Caucasians'.