Time for Asian-style diplomacy, not the US, to take the lead on North Korea
Chandran Nair says Asian nations cannot be mere bystanders or slavish US allies as Washington’s self-serving strategies worsen the prospects for regional peace, and new options can start with an all-Asian alternative to the six-party talks
Three months ago, Rex Tillerson was CEO of a global oil giant with a mixed reputation on global issues such as climate change and the environment. Today, he is the top American diplomat, working for a president whose foreign policy approach, as a New York Times editorial put it, “has rattled the world” and, as the Financial Times described it, “scares a lot of people witless”.
Tillerson fires warning of pre-emptive US military strike on North Korea
And now, during his first trip to the Asian region, Tillerson was so self-assured as to warn us that all options were on the table, including a unilateral military strike. This is perhaps the definition of undiplomatic for a first-time diplomat visiting an unfamiliar region where there is a need for calm diplomacy, not the ratcheting up of tensions by a non-regional power. This is something he had been reminded of by the Chinese since arriving in Beijing, where he did not repeat his threats.
It is time the region deployed an ‘Asian diplomacy’, devoid of threats and bullying, to solve its challenges
A cursory understanding of international law should make it clear that a pre-emptive strike would be illegal, and any military action would require UN Security Council approval, which is very unlikely.
As Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) said in a recent statement: the situation is akin to “two accelerating trains” on a collision course.
What is telling is that the US has not learnt any lessons from the disasters in Iraq and Libya. Yet the world remains silent as a new US administration sets the scene for more dangerous adventures.
It is high time for Asian nations to stop being bystanders to a potential train wreck and allowing the future peace and prosperity of the region to be shaped by foreign powers unlikely to bear the true pain of a regional conflict. We in Asia cannot allow a belligerent US led by a temperamental billionaire and his cohort of rich friends to determine our future. This is an intolerable situation and would even be laughable, if not for the fact that it is a serious threat to global peace.