Meeting at the Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Presdient Barack Obama tried to lead the charge against North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Detonating an alleged nuclear fusion bomb Jan. 9, North Korean continues its saber-rattling, firing off various of missiles landing in the Sea of Japan. Obama hopes to persuade South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Japanese Prime Minister Shnzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping to take tougher steps to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. “We are united in our efforts to deter and defend against North Korean provocations,” said Obama, holding a receptive audience with Japan and South Korea but gettinbg resistance from China for imposing more sanctions. China accepted tough March 2 U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korean but has no interest in antagonizing Kim’s Stalinist state.
President Barack Obmaa finds himself caught between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place, seeking more sanctions from China against North Korea while, at the same time, rebuking China for building military installations in the Spratly Islands, a group of shallow reefs, atolls, islets and islands in the South China Sea. Obama hoped to improve relations between Japan and South Korea, two key U.S. allies but rarely civil with each other. Japan and South Korea compete for a bigger chunk of U.S.and global business with South Korea edging out Japan due to its more affordable labor market. Obama’s hit a brick wall with China, trying to get North Korea’s biggest trading partner [China] to rein in its nuclear program. North Korea’s 33-year-old leader Kim Jong-un threatened March 26 in a propaganda video to hit Washington with nuclear weapons, something that got lawmakers’ attention.
Xi signaled that Washington and China have “effective communication and coordination” when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Calling for de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Xi isn’t too worried about Kim’s bluster because China holds leverage over North Korea’s beleaguered economy. Obama has his hands tied trying to rein in China’s attempt to control shipping access through the South China Sea bordering open waterways of Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia. China stubbornly insists the open coastal South China Sea waterway is part of China’s sovereign territory, despite running against established international law. Absent from the Global Nuclear Security Summit was Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose relations with the White House show no signs of improving. White House officials won’t cut Putin any slack over his March 1, 2014 invasion of Crimea.
Staying at odds with Putin has hurt the U.S. ability to improve U.S. national security in the Pacific Rim and around the globe. Fighting Ukraine’s battles against the Kremlin does nothing to mend fences with Putin. If Obama’s relationship were better with Putin, the U.S. could’ve found a fix to the Syria crisis, causing the worst refugee catastrophe since WWII. Fighting Ukraine’s battle with Russia shows that, in the scheme of things, Obama continues to pick the wrong battles. If Russia were on the U.S. side, it would be far easier to contain Kim’s North Korea, rarely deviating from the Kremlin’s expectations. When you consider what happened with the Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western coup in Kiev that toppled Ukraine’s duly-elected Mocow-backed government of President Viktor Yanukovich, it’s no wonder Putin doesn’t trust the U.S., European Union or pro-Western agenda.
Obama’s found out the hard way that letting relations with Moscow deteriorate has consequences in various parts of the globe. It’s not reassuring to Putin, as a major world leader, that Obama gives higher priority to Ukraine’s 50-year-old chocolate-baron President Petro Poroshenko. Ukraine’s foreign policy has little consequence to the U.S., certainly not enough to jeopardize U.S.-Russian relations. If Obama had Putin on his side in the Pacific Rim, he’d have far more control over Kim’s nuclear program. Without solid U.S.-Russia relations, the U.S. finds itself backing scheming countries like Saudi Arabia. Instead of questioning Putin’s intentions to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Obama should have worked closely with Moscow to find a fix to the Syrian War. Backing the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad for five years, Obama left Putin scratching his head.
Obama’s foreign policy needs to pay more attention to linkage, where relations with world powers pay dividends in unexpected ways in various parts of the globe. Even Xi showed awareness of linkage. “As international terrorist activities have entered a new phase of increasing activity, the threat of nuclear terrorism particularly cannot be ignored,” said China’s Foreign Ministry. Raising the nuclear terrorism threat shows that China certainly sees recent events in Paris and Brussels as relevant to world order. Instead of doing Saudi Arabia’s bidding in Syria, the White House should start backing Putin’s attempt to fight global terrorism, starting by preventing various terrorist groups from toppling al-Assad. Whatever happens in Ukraine has little to do with global security, certainly not in the Pacific Rim. With Mideast terrorism and North Korean threats rising, better ties with Moscow can only help.
