Friends of the US and ''emerging partners'' in south-east Asia are looking for proof the US's renewed interest in the region is going to be more than a one-night stand, a Canberra academic has warned.
Professor William Tow said on Monday that members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations ''understandably worry about the credibility and durability of American engagement and security commitments given the US's ongoing financial challenges''.
Professor Tow, the head of the department of international relations at the Australian National University's School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, said the US's ''strategic retrenchment'' from Iraq and Afghanistan had also given the ASEAN powers cause to wonder if America was in the region for the long haul.
While countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia welcomed the US presence as a counterbalance to China, they did not want to wake up one morning to find the rug had been pulled out from under their feet.
''ASEAN's member states are coming under increased Chinese pressure to pull away from the West … and to avoid contesting China's territorial, economic and strategic interests ,'' Professor Tow said.
''Engaging with China geopolitically is becoming increasingly difficult.''
He said America's current interest in south-east Asia was far more sophisticated and complex than its last major adventure in the region, the Vietnam war, in the 1960s.
''The 10 ASEAN member states have a combined population of over 600 million people and a combined $1.8 trillion gross national product. The ties between the US and ASEAN are fundamental to US economic growth and security.''
The past 24 months have seen the US make remarkable inroads in its relations with individual ASEAN members.
''After years of relative neglect, Washington again sees formal US alliances with the Philippines and Thailand as critical to American offshore balance efforts to safeguard traffic in the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea,'' he said. ''They are two of the world's most important sea lines of communication where impeded access would have dire ramifications for the US and world economies.''
Professor Tow said US fears Indonesia was a ''second front'' for hosting international terrorism were easing and its once frigid relationship with the Burmese Government had thawed considerably.
''There's been a strong, and from the US point of view, favourable signal Burma might be ending its previously high level of economic and strategic dependence on China,'' he said.
While the south-east Asian powers support a ''robust'' American presence to hedge against growing Chinese power, US policy makers needed to ''do more than show the proverbial flag'' he said.
''Given sufficient time and effort the characteristics of patience and finesse which often characterise the ASEAN way could blend with the US's legalistic, results-oriented, foreign policy style to maintain a stable and prosperous Asia Pacific''.
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