BALTIMORE, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The United States is reorienting its foreign policy toward the strategic Asia-Pacific region, a U.S. expert says.
The pivoting of the U.S. foreign policy to Asia comes as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wind down, David Lampton, director of China studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies told the Chinese news agency Xinhua Monday, while agreeing with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton had said ahead of last weekend's 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that the 21st century will be America's Pacific century.
Lampton, speaking to Xinhua ahead of the forthcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and other such meetings, said the United States is essentially reorienting its foreign policy from the Middle East, and in some sense, from a transatlantic posture.
"I believe about 60 percent or 65 percent of U.S. trade now flows across the Pacific as opposed to across the Atlantic. As Secretary Clinton has said, we are pivoting towards the Pacific where our economic and strategic interests increasingly lie," Lampton said.
The ASEAN summit and other such meetings will be held this week in Bali, Indonesia following the APEC meetings in Honolulu.
Xinhua said as part of his efforts to maintain U.S. leadership in the region, U.S. President Barack Obama will be the first American President to attend the ASEAN meeting.
Lampton told Xinhua regional trade would be one of the ways for countries to cooperate to keep the region stable and prosperous and to reduce tensions.
Lampton was quoted as saying it is important to bring China, currently ASEAN's largest trading partner, also into the "security architecture in Asia" where it plays as a participant.
