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US, Asia-Pacific developing new rules for a changing world

Mr John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, gave a policy address detailing the US vision for Asia-Pacific engagement at the East-West Centre in Hawaii on Wednesday. In his speech, Mr Kerry said America’s security and prosperity are closely and increasingly linked to the Asia-Pacific. He also outlined four specific areas where the US and the Asia-Pacific can work together: Creating sustainable economic growth, powering a clean energy revolution, promoting regional cooperation and empowering people. Below is an excerpt of his speech.

Asia-Pacific is an engine of growth, says Mr Kerry. PHOTO: REUTERS

Asia-Pacific is an engine of growth, says Mr Kerry. PHOTO: REUTERS

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Mr John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, gave a policy address detailing the US vision for Asia-Pacific engagement at the East-West Centre in Hawaii on Wednesday. In his speech, Mr Kerry said America’s security and prosperity are closely and increasingly linked to the Asia-Pacific. He also outlined four specific areas where the US and the Asia-Pacific can work together: Creating sustainable economic growth, powering a clean energy revolution, promoting regional cooperation and empowering people. Below is an excerpt of his speech.

We know that America’s security and prosperity are closely and increasingly linked to the Asia-Pacific. And that is why President Barack Obama began what is known as the rebalance to Asia in 2009. That is why he has asked me to redouble my own efforts in the region over the next two-and-a-half years. And that is why I want to talk to you today about four specific opportunities: Creating sustainable economic growth, powering a clean energy revolution, promoting regional cooperation and empowering people.

Now, these important opportunities can and should be realised through a rules-based regional order, a stable regional order on common rules and norms of behaviour that are reinforced by institutions. And that is what holds the greatest potential for all of us for making progress. We support this approach, frankly, because it encourages cooperative behaviour. It fosters regional integration. It ensures that all countries, big and small, have a say in how we work together on shared challenges. As Secretary of State, my job is not just to respond to crises. It is also about defining and seizing the long-term opportunities for the US. Nowhere are those strategic opportunities clearer or more compelling than in the Asia-Pacific.

That is why we are currently negotiating a comprehensive and ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that will create thousands of new jobs here in America as well as in other countries and it will spur this race to the top, not to the bottom. It raises the standards by which we do business. That is why we are elevating our engagement in multilateral institutions, from the ASEAN Regional Forum to the East Asia Summit. And that is why we are revitalising our security partnerships with our treaty allies: Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the Philippines. And that is why we are standing up for the human rights and the fundamental freedoms that people in Asia cherish as much as any people in the world.

So how do we make our shared vision a reality for the region and ensure that Asia contributes to global peace and prosperity? First, we need to turn today’s economic nationalism and fragmentation into tomorrow’s sustainable growth. I say it all the time: Foreign Policy is economic policy and economic policy is foreign policy. They are one and the same. There is no denying that, particularly in the Asia-Pacific.

Asia-Pacific is an engine of global economic growth, but we cannot take that growth for granted. Because what we face is something that is really a common challenge.

Across the world, we have seen a staggering growth in youth populations. Now happily, many, if not most, governments in Asia are working to present booming youth populations with an alternative, with a quality education, with skills for the modern world, with jobs that allow them to build a life and confidence in their countries. That is part of the reason why the young people in Asia are joining the ranks of the middle class, not the ranks of violent extremists.

In the 21st century, a nation’s interests and the well-being of its people are advanced not just by troops or diplomats, but they are advanced by entrepreneurs, by chief executives of companies, by the businesses that are good corporate citizens, by the workers that they employ, by the students that they train and the shared prosperity that they create. That is why we are working with partners across the Asia-Pacific to maintain and raise standards as we expand trade and investment by pursuing a comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Ultimately, the true measure of our success will not be just whether our economies continue to grow, but how they continue to grow. And that brings me to our second challenge: We need to turn today’s climate crisis into tomorrow’s clean energy revolution.

Now, all of this — all of us in this room understand climate change is not a crisis of the future. Climate change is here now. It is happening, happening all over the world. It is not a challenge that is somehow remote and that people cannot grab onto. But here is the key: It is happening at a rate that should be alarming to all of us.

By definition, rescuing the planet’s climate is a global challenge that requires a global solution. And nowhere is all of this more evident than in the Asia-Pacific. And no two nations can have a greater impact or influence on this debate or this challenge than China and the United States.

During the Strategic and Economic Dialogue last month, Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew and I were in Beijing for two days. And the US and China together delivered a clear message: The world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, the US and China, are committed to advancing a low-carbon economic growth pattern and significantly reducing our countries’ greenhouse gases. And we are working together to launch demonstration projects on carbon capture, utilisation and storage. We are adopting stronger fuel efficiency standards for heavy- and light-duty vehicles.

We are advancing a new initiative on climate change and forests, because we know that the threat of deforestation and its implications of a changing climate are real and they are grave and they are growing.

Now, the US and China have a special role to play in reducing emissions and developing a clean energy future. But everybody — every nation — has a stake in getting it right. It is actually an extraordinary opportunity because it is not a problem without a solution. The solution to climate change is simple. It is called energy policy. Make the right choices about how you produce your energy — without emissions, without coal-fired power plants that do not have carbon capture and storage or are not burning clean — then you can begin to produce clean energy.

And the new energy market that we are looking at is the biggest market the world has ever seen. It is a US$6 trillion (S$7.5 trillion) market with four to five billion users and it will go up to seven to nine billion users in the next 30 years. The fastest segment by far in terms of growth in that market is clean energy.

We need a formula for the 21st century that will sustainably power us into the 22nd century. And I believe that, together, the United States and countries across the Asia-Pacific can make this leap. That is an exciting opportunity and that is what we are working on with China today.

The bottom line is we do not have time to waste. If we are going to power a clean energy revolution, we have to work together to dampen security competition and rivalry in the Asia-Pacific and focus on these other constructive efforts. And so our third challenge is clear: We need to turn maritime conflicts into regional cooperation. All of us in this room understand that these disputes in the South China Sea and elsewhere, they are really about more than claims to islands and reefs and rocks and the economic interests that flow from them. They are about whether might makes right or whether global rules and norms and rule of law and international law will prevail.

I want to be absolutely clear: The US takes no position on questions of sovereignty in the South and East China Seas, but we do care about how those questions are resolved. We care about behaviour. We firmly oppose the use of intimidation and coercion or force to assert a territorial claim by anyone in the region. And we firmly oppose any suggestion that freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea and airspace are privileges granted by a big state to a small one. All claimants must work together to solve the claims through peaceful means, big or small. And these principles bind all nations equally and all nations have a responsibility to uphold them.

Now, one thing that I know will contribute to maintaining regional peace and stability is a constructive relationship between the US and China. President Obama has made it clear that the US welcomes the rise of a peaceful, prosperous and stable China — one that plays a responsible role in Asia and the world and supports rules and norms on economic and security issues. The President has been clear, as have I, that we are committed to avoiding the trap of strategic rivalry and intend to forge a relationship in which we can broaden our cooperation on common interests and constructively manage our differences and disagreements.

But make no mistake: This constructive relationship, this “new model” relationship of great powers, is not going to happen simply by talking about it. It is not going to happen by engaging in a slogan or pursuing a sphere of influence.

It will be defined by more and better cooperation on shared challenges. And it will be defined by a mutual embrace of the rules, the norms and institutions that have served both of our nations and the region so well. I am very pleased that China and the US are cooperating effectively on the Iran nuclear talks and we have increased our dialogue on North Korea. We are also cooperating significantly on climate change possibilities, counter-piracy operations and South Sudan.

So, we are busy trying to define a great power relationship by the places where we can find mutual agreement and cooperation. We have seen the benefits of partnerships based on common values and common approaches to regional and global security.

History has shown us that countries whose policies respect and reflect universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are likely to be peaceful and prosperous, far more effective at tapping the talents of their people and far better partners in the long term.

That is why our fourth and final challenge is so important: We need to turn human rights problems into opportunities for human empowerment. Across the region, there are bright spots. But we also see backsliding, such as the setback to democracy in Thailand. We all know that some countries in the region hold different views on democratic governance and the protection of human rights. But though we may sometimes disagree on these issues with the governments, I do not think we have any fundamental disagreement with their people.

Given a choice, I do not think too many young people in China would choose to have less access to uncensored information, rather than more. I do not think too many people in Vietnam would say: “I’d rather not be allowed to organise and speak out for better working conditions or a healthy environment.” And I cannot imagine that anyone in Asia would watch more than a 130 million people go to the polls in Indonesia to choose a president after a healthy, vigorous and peaceful debate and then say: “I do not want that right for myself.” I also think most people would agree that freedom of speech and the press is essential to checking corruption and it is essential that rule of law is needed to protect innovation and to enable businesses to thrive. That is why support for these values is both universal and pragmatic. And so, my friends, in the great tradition of our country, we will continue to promote human rights and democracy in Asia, without arrogance but also without apology.

So you have heard me for longer than you might have wanted to describing a pretty ambitious agenda. And you are right, it is a big deal. We are super engaged. We are ambitious for this process: Completing the TPP negotiations, creating sustainable growth, powering a clean energy revolution, managing regional rivalries by promoting cooperation and empowering people from all walks of life — that is how we are going to realise the promise of the Asia-Pacific. And this is a region whose countries can and should come together, because there is much more that unites us than divides us. This is a region that can and should meet danger and difficulty with courage and collaboration. And we are determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.

That is why, together with our Asian partners, we are developing modern rules for a changing world — rules that help economies grow strong and fair and just, with protections for the environment, safeguards for the people who have both too often been left behind. That is why we are building a region where Asia’s major cities are no longer clouded with smog and smoke and where people can depend on safe food and water and clean oceans, clean air and shared resources from its rivers and its oceans, and with a sense of responsibility one generation passes on to the next to preserve all of that for the future.

That is why we are building a region where countries peacefully resolve their differences over islands, reefs, rocks by finding a common ground on the basis of international law. And that is why we are building a region that protects the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms that make all nations stronger. There is still a long road ahead.

But nothing gives me more hope in the next miles of the journey than the courage of those who have reached a different and more hopeful kind of future. And that is the story that I want to leave you with today.

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