US dips into Mekong politics

August 14, 2010

By Simon Roughneen

BANGKOK - China's dam-building on the upper reaches of the Mekong River is raising hackles with countries downstream and providing the United States with another strategic theater to counterbalance China's growing influence in Southeast Asia.

Growing controversy on the issue comes at a time when the US has launched a raft of new initiatives in the region, including leading a recent multilateral military training exercise in Cambodia, joint US-Vietnam naval training exercises, discussions with Hanoi on sharing nuclear fuel, and Washington's announcement that it will re-engage with Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces unit.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional forum in Hanoi at the end ofJuly was overshadowed by Sino-American rivalry, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that the US was willing to mediate in territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Many Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, believe Beijing increasingly views the contested maritime area as a Chinese lake.

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jichi responded bluntly to Clinton's remarks, saying that they amounted to "an attack on China", before reminding Southeast Asian countries that China is a big country, implying that individually they are small. In response, Cambodia and Vietnam are following countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in trying to forge new links with the US to counterbalance China's rapid rise.

in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LH14Ae01.html