Sitting in his office in Washington, Kurt Campbell, the United States' top diplomat for Asia, surveys a changing region and sees the need for a delicate American approach.
'What Asian countries want is for the US to walk a careful line,' says Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
While Asian nations want to see evidence of an 'enduring commitment' to issues such as a regional solution to the South China Sea dispute and development on the Mekong, 'they in no way they want the United States to stoke tensions, or to create unnecessary tensions in the relations with China'.
'That's what we seek as well,' he said, shortly before embarking with his boss, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a seven-nation tour of Asia.
That mission will be come with President Barack Obama's long-delayed trip to India, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia.
Whether China will see it that way remains to be seen, given recent concerns over Clinton's statements on US interest in seeing a regional solution to South China Sea disputes and the Diaoyu Islands falling within the US-Japan mutual security pact.
