U.S. Secretary of Defense Hagel to Visit China

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is scheduled to travel to China next week for the first time as Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, Hagel will first travel to Hawai‘i where he will meet with nine of the ten defense ministers from ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), April 1-2. (Thailand’s defense minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is also the country’s Prime Minister, is not expected to attend due to ongoing domestic political uncertainty.)

This is the first time that a U.S. Secretary of Defense will meet with ASEAN defense ministers on U.S. soil and at a time, according to The Economist, when “Tensions are mounting dangerously in the much-disputed waters of the South China Sea.” Many of these tensions center on China’s ongoing assertiveness in Southeast Asia, including exerting pressure on the Philippines not to continue before a U.N. arbitration tribunal against China over claims to features in the South China Sea, and blocking Filipino supply ships from reaching Second Thomas shoal. Chinese naval ships also patrolled in waters around James Shoal, a feature claimed by Malaysia and China continues to try and impose restrictions upon Vietnamese fishing vessels around the Paracel Islands.

The U.S. rebalance toward Asia goes well beyond the military dimension as Secretary Hagel addressed in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that he coauthored with Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzler in February. However, the significance of hosting the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting on U.S. soil is that it further reinforces the geographical fact that the United States is a Pacific power and will remain so. Looking ahead it is prudent to predicate that the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Meeting will become a more institutionalized, maybe annual, occurrence; to date U.S.-ASEAN defense meetings have been on the sidelines of other events. In light of the unfolding tragedy of Malaysian Airlines MH370 flight and last year’s devastating Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, there is much scope for further developing U.S.-ASEAN cooperation and coordination in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief operations. To that end, leaders from NOAA and USAID are expected to join Hagel in Hawai’i.

After Hawai‘i, Hagel will travel to Japan to continue discussions with Japanese counterparts to revise “the defense guidelines that underpin our bilateral military-to-military relationship.” Last week in The Hague, President Obama hosted a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. This was the first time Abe and Park had met for scheduled meeting, at a time that the The New York Times describes the Abe-Park relationship thus: “Their antagonism is complex and deeply personal, rooted in World War II history as well as their own conservative and nationalist political leanings, which make old animosities even harder to overcome.” U.S officials have publicly expressed concern over the “strained” relations between Japan and South Korea concerning “historical issues.”

President Obama also is scheduled to visit Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia next month, in part to make up for his missed trip last October for the East Asia Summit and APEC. He will not be going to China, though he did meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping also on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague last week, their first face-to-face meeting since last June. First Lady Michelle Obama was just in China, with her two daughters for a trip that highlighted the value of education.

Looking ahead, Secretary Hagel is going to China at a time when there is no slowdown in U.S. engagement with Asia. Hagel will no doubt return to the region in May for the Shangri-La Dialogue and Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in June. Commerce Secretary Pritzker is expected to travel to Asia this summer to further promote trade and investment ties. The U.S. focus on Asia remains high, and Hagel’s trip to China is just another component of this engagement. After his visit to China, Hagel will fly on to Mongolia.

Damien Tomkins works at the East-West Center office in Washington, D.C. where he contributes research and content to the Asia Matters for America initiative and coordinates the Asia Pacific Bulletin publication series. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and not of any organization with which he is affiliated.