Clinton Engineers Expansion of Asian NATO to Contain China
Rick Rozoff, Stop NATO, Jul 14 2012

The global proconsul and plenipotentiary of the world’s sole military superpower began a two-week tour of her empire’s provinces, old and new, in Asia and the Middle East in Paris on Jul 5-6, where she lambasted Russia and China for not attending the third Friends of Syria regime change conclave, threatening they would “pay a price” for their lack of subservience to Washington’s agenda in Syria, and by implication worldwide. Having served notice to the US’s two main challengers in Eurasia and the world in such an unequivocal manner, Sec State Clinton flew into Afghanistan on Jul 7 to declare the war-ravaged country the US’s latest major non-NATO ally, joining Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand in that category, then left for Japan to attend a Conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo. On Jul 9 she was in Mongolia, on Jul 10 in Vietnam, on Jul 11 in Laos and from Jul 11-13 in Cambodia. She left Cambodia for Egypt, where she arrived on Jul 14, and from where she will depart for Israel to meet with the nation’s leaders on Jul 16-17. The five Asian countries she visited are all near China, Afghanistan, Laos and Vietnam bordering it. Her trip followed a nine-day Asian tour by Sec Def Panetta last month which took him to Singapore, Vietnam and India in the opening salvo of Washington’s strategic pivot toward the Asia-Pacific region.

Since her 13-day, seven-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region two years ago, which took her to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum in Vietnam and from there to China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia, Clinton has softened the political ground for the Pentagon to follow up with basing and other agreements with nations in the area. Her current trip pursues the same objective, particularly in Mongolia and Indochina, where Washington has now acquired four partners which during the Cold War era were allies of the Soviet Union, Cambodia after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. The US State Dept and Defense Dept work so thoroughly in tandem as to be indistinguishable most of the time, from AFRICOM to the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership to the Global Peace Operations Initiative employed to train and integrate the militaries of scores of countries in Africa and Asia. In visiting Laos on Jul 11, Clinton was the first Sec State to do so since John Foster Dulles was the guest of King Sisavang Phoulivong in 1955. Two years ago, Clinton met with Laotian Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the State Dept to hold the two nations’ highest-level talks since the Vietnam War. The visit was the first to the US by a leading Laotian official since the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party came to power in 1975. The year before, a similar initiative was launched by the White House and State Dept with fellow ASEAN member Myanmar which culminated last November in Clinton visiting the country and switching it from the Chinese to the US column. During Clinton’s hosting of the Laotian foreign minister in 2010, then-State Dept spokesman P J Crowley stated:

The US is committed to building our relationship with Laos as part of our broader efforts to expand engagement with Southeast Asia.

Nine days later at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi, Clinton openly challenged China, asserting:

The US has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea. The US is a Pacific nation, and we are committed to being an active partner with ASEAN.

That is, exploiting the ten-member organization (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) against China, particularly in respect to island disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea. In fact to add ASEAN members to mainstay US military allies in the Asia-Pacific Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan, with whom Washington has mutual defense treaties, in forming the nucleus of a rapidly evolving Asian NATO that will also encompass Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The Philippines of late has officially designated the South China Sea the West Philippine Sea, with the State Det likely to follow suit as it has with Russia’s South Kuril Islands, which it has referred to as (Japan’s) Northern Territories, and the Persian Gulf, frequently deemed the Arabian Gulf to taunt Iran. Cartographic aggression as it were.

The month after Clinton’s attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Vietnam two years ago, Vietnamese officials were hosted by the aircraft carrier Washington off the nation’s coast and the guided missile destroyer McCain arrived in Da Nang to lead a joint exercise in the South China Sea, the first between the US and unified Vietnam. While in Mongolia earlier this week, Clinton stated:

My trip reflects a strategic priority of US foreign policy today. After 10 years in which we focused a great deal of attention on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US is making substantially increased investments, diplomatic, economic, strategic and otherwise, in this part of the world. It’s what we call our pivot toward Asia.

She praised the government of Pres Elbegdorj as “a model democracy in territory surrounded by Russia and China,” as the WSJ phrased it, and celebrated recent reforms in Myanmar, now a friend of Washington.

Next month the US will launch the latest Khaan Quest multinational military exercise in Mongolia, which since 2003 have been conducted by PACCOM to train local troops for deployment first to Iraq and afterward Afghanistan where they serve under NATO command. In 2006 the exercise included, in addition to US and Mongolian forces, troops from Bangladesh, Fiji, South Korea, Thailand and Tonga. South Korea and Tonga now have contingents attached to ISAF in Afghanistan along with fellow Asia-Pacific nations Australia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Mongolia itself. Khaan Quest 2007 included over 1,000 troops from the US, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Tonga. Khaan Quest 2008 added forces from India, Nepal and Thailand as well as NATO member France. The next year’s exercise included troops from Cambodia, India, Japan and South Korea. Khaan Quest 2010 involved troops from four NATO nations, the US, Canada, France and Germany, as well as five Asian states, Mongolia, India, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Last year’s exercise saw US and Mongolian forces joined by those from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

This March, Mongolia became the first country to be granted the new NATO Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme, and it has since been identified as one of eight members of NATO’s new Partners Across the Globe program. The other seven are also in the broader Asia-Pacific region: Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea. Last month, the Diplomat reported that China is increasingly wary of US and NATO engagement with and recruitment of Mongolia. The magazine stated:

While Khaan Quest is becoming more infused with Asian powers, it remains a stage for Mongolia to display its strategic relationship with the US and NATO. It remains a stage for Mongolia to display its strategic relationship with the US and NATO. NATO’s grant of the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme to Mongolia marks the formalization of a relationship that has blossomed within the past decade. Mongolia is becoming NATO’s outpost between China and Russia. Cooperation between Mongolia and the US is expected to focus on building up the capacity of the Mongolian Armed Forces as well as improving interoperability with NATO troops. Mongolia has been steadily improving its ties with NATO through its commitment of troops during the Kosovo conflict and its current efforts in Afghanistan. There more than 100 MAF currently serving in Afghanistan as part of ISAF. Mongolia also committed troops to the NATO mission in Kosovo from 2005 to 2007.

Less than four months before Clinton arrived in Cambodia to attend the ASEAN heads of government meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting and the US-ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, PACCOM and US Army Pacific led the third annual Angkor Sentinel command post and field training exercises in Cambodia. The exercises are held under the auspices of the Global Peace Operations Initiative, managed by the US State Dept’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Khaan Quest 2007 was also assisted by the Global Peace Operations Initiative to train troops for deployment to Afghanistan, as were the second Shanti Doot exercise in Bangladesh in 2008 and the Garuda Shield 2009 exercise in Indonesia. Angkor Sentinel 2010 involved over 1,000 military personnel from 21 nations, among them the US, Cambodia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia and the Philippines. That is, from five NATO member states and seven prospective Asian NATO nations. Mongolian troops participate in Angkor Sentinel exercises and Cambodian ones in Khaan Quest exercises. Last year’s Angkor Sentinel included military personnel from 26 nations. Next year’s exercise can be expected to include increased participation from fellow ASEAN member states like Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Other ASEAN members are also likely to join Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand in offering bases for the deployment of US troops, ships and aircraft. The Obama administration and its NATO allies are constructing a military network throughout the length and breadth of the Asia-Pacific region to isolate and confront China and Russia. China in the first place.