Obama begins Asia trip with support for Japan

President Barack Obama will arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday on the beginning of a trip through Asia that is meant to show that the United States is committed to its partners in the region, even as China becomes more assertive.

Before he landed, Obama confirmed that America's mutual security treaty with Japan applies to islands at the center of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.

"The policy of the United States is clear," he said in a written response to questions published in Japan's Yomiuri newspaper before the start of a four-country Asia tour.

The delicacy of Obama’s diplomatic balancing act was highlighted on Monday, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen in parts of the region as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

The move strained Tokyo's already tense ties with China and fellow U.S. ally South Korea, another stop on his four-nation tour that will also take in Malaysia and the Philippines, where armed with truncheon, shields and water hose clashed Wednesday with more than 100 left-wing activists who rallied at the U.S. Embassy in Manila to oppose a looming pact that will increase the American military presence in the Philippines and Obama’s visit on Monday.

Obama’s statement seems aimed at reassuring Japan that the U.S. would come to its defense if China were to seize the islands, known as the Diayou in China and the Senkaku in Japan. Russia's annexation of Crimea has sparked concern about America's political will to protect Asian allies, notably in Japan and the Philippines.

"The Senkaku islands are administered by Japan" and therefore fall under the U.S.-Japan treaty, he wrote. "And we oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan's administration of these islands."

Obama said the United States is deepening its ties with China, but "our engagement with China does not and will not come at the expense of Japan or any other ally."

He told the Yomiuri that the United States will continue to take steps to reduce the impact of its military presence in Okinawa, but said "it's important to remember that the U.S. Marine Corps presence on Okinawa is absolutely critical to our mutual security. It plays a key role in the defense of Japan."

Abe and Obama are expected to be intent on sending a message that the alliance  — central to America's presence in Asia and the core of Tokyo's security policy — is stronger then ever when they hold their symbolic summit on Thursday.

The two leaders are also likely to discuss how to deal with North Korea at a time when the region is jittery over a possible nuclear test by an unpredictable Pyongyang.

North Korea, already subject to United Nations' sanctions over its previous atomic tests, the third and most recent of which took place in early 2013, threatened last month to conduct what it called "a new form of nuclear test."

On Monday the North's KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman saying Obama's trip was a "reactionary and dangerous one as it is aimed to escalate confrontation and bring dark clouds of a nuclear arms race to hang over this unstable Region.”

It is that possibility of instability that worries U.S. allies. South Korea and the Philippines are keen to shore up security ties.

U.S. allies wonder if America has adequate capability to back them up in territorial rifts with China, Caspile says, given Washington's budget problems and preoccupation with crises elsewhere.

"The American objective is to reassure countries that ... America is here to stay and is going to keep a strong interest in dealing with China together with those countries," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Tokyo's Sophia University.

A report released last week by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged that more effort and money be devoted to upgrading alliances in the Asia-Pacific. "A successful rebalance must underscore the strategic message that the policy represents an enduring U.S. commitment to the region, assuring our partners that we are in it for the long haul," it said.

During a recent Asian tour, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pledged to deploy two more ballistic missile defense destroyers in Japan by 2017 in a bid to allay Japan's worries over a territorial dispute with China and missile launches by North Korea.

The U.S. has 50,000 troops in Japan and about 28,500 in South Korea, where it just concluded joint exercises. But Tokyo and Seoul remain at odds over a separate territorial dispute and lingering Korean resentment of Japanese aggression before and during World War II.

The U.S. and the Philippines have been scrambling to finalize a new security accord in time for Obama's visit. It will allow more U.S. troops, aircraft and ships to be temporarily stationed in selected Philippine military camps as a counterweight to China and as a standby disaster-response force. About 500 American soldiers have been based in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide anti-terrorism training and intelligence to Filipino troops battling Muslim fighters.

 Wire services