Asia seeks Obama's assurance in territorial spats

[yuiyoshida]

By JULIE PACE



Politics Apr. 20, 2014 - 06:09AM JST ( 14 )
Asia seeks Obama's assurance in territorial spats Barack Obama FILE - This April 17, 2014 file photo shows President Barack Obama speaking in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. During his upcoming trip to Asia, the president and the region's leaders will be keeping close watch on the Russian troops amassed on Ukraine's border and the status of a tenuous diplomatic deal aimed at keeping those forces at bay. In Asia, the U.S. response to the Ukraine crisis is being viewed through the prism of the region's own territorial disputes China. Japan and the Philippines _ two of the four countries Obama will visit _ are locked in tense disputes with Beijing over islands in the South and East China Seas and will be seeking reassurances that the U.S. would back them if the conflicts boiled over. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

WASHINGTON —

As President Barack Obama travels through Asia this coming week, he will confront a region that’s warily watching the crisis in Ukraine through the prism of its own territorial tensions with China.

Each of the four countries on Obama’s itinerary — Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines — has a dispute with Beijing over islands in the South and East China Seas. Their leaders will be weighing Obama’s willingness to support them if those conflicts boil over.

“What we can say after seeing what happened to Ukraine is that using force to change the status quo is not acceptable,” said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose country is in one of the fiercest disputes with China.

Administration officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, have taken a tougher line on the territorial issues in recent weeks, sternly warning China against the use of military force and noting that the U.S. has treaty obligations to defend Japan in particular. But in an attempt to maintain good relations with China, the U.S. has not formally taken sides on the question of which countries should control which islands.

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http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/asia-seeks-obamas-assurance-in-territorial-spats