US interest fading in pivot to Asia

After a little more than a year of fanfare, President Barack Obama's "pivot" of American political, economic and military attention to Asia and the Pacific seems to be fading. The clues are subtle.

The president hurried through a brief discussion with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last Friday when they met for an hour in the Oval Office. Afterwards, the two leaders met the press to deliver platitudes, then had a working lunch.

A revealing difference in attitude could be seen in remarks to the press. Obama said his discussion with Abe had been a "bilateral meeting", meaning one of many workaday meetings he has with other leaders. Abe termed it a "summit meeting", giving it top place.

In the afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry's meeting with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida produced more platitudes. Beyond that, there was no state dinner, no side trip to the presidential retreat at Camp David for informal meetings, no gathering with key congressional leaders.

Late in the day, in a talk at a Washington think tank, Abe responded with the most forthright speech on security heard from a Japanese leader in years. "Japan is back," he asserted. "Keep counting on my country." He set three tasks for Japan under his leadership. As the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions become more prosperous, "Japan must remain a leading promoter of rules" for trade, investment, intellectual property, labour and the environment; continue to be "a guardian of the global commons, like the maritime commons", helping to keep it open for everyone; and work more closely with the US, Korea, Australia and other like-minded democracies throughout the region.

And with an oblique reference to Japan's dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands, the prime minister said: "No one should ever doubt the robustness of the Japan-US alliance." It was, perhaps inadvertently, a mild rebuke for Obama's diminished interest in US relations with Asia.