“Rice had told Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers that she could not make it to the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in the Laotian capital Vientiane in late July due to a clash of schedules, regional diplomats said.
But some officials had linked her skipping of the trip to concerns in Washington that the region was not pushing enough for democratic reforms in military-ruled Myanmar.
As this would be the first time in about two decades that a US Secretary of State is not participating in the annual ASEAN talks, some ASEAN leaders may perceive it as downgrading of US participation in the region’s most important diplomatic event.”
This is perhaps one of the dumbest acts yet by this administration. Let’s look at some of the issues Rice could talk about if she went.
Asian Central Banks hold about 1.1 trillion in US Treasury Securities.
The revaluation of the Yuan
The US trade deficit with China.
The US budget deficit and its effects on international trade
China’s recent diplomatic and economic overtures to Central and South America
The Korean nuclear situation
Not that any of these issues are important to this administration.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1529&e=2&u=/afp/20050707/pl_afp/usaseanrice_05
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