Shultz Says U.S. Role Still Is Vital to Asia, Pacific

American leadership remains essential for the success of Asia, and the United States remains “the fundamental guarantor of the balance of power in the (Pacific) region,” Secretary of George P. Shultz declared Thursday.

In a wide-ranging review of American policy toward Asia after a nine-stop Asian tour, Shultz made it plain that the United States does not plan to cut back its political or military commitments in East Asia and the Pacific. And he termed the Philippines and the Korean peninsula of “strategic” importance for the United States.

This country has been “the indispensable stabilizing influence” in Asia since the end of World War II, said Shultz, who first came to the Pacific as an island-hopping Marine during that war.

“For more than 40 years, the United States has pursued farsighted and effective policies towards the region,” he said. In his 22-page speech at the East-West Center here, Shultz omitted any mention of the Vietnam War, which cost more than 50,000 American lives.

His Farewell to Asia

The speech served, in effect, as the outgoing secretary of state’s fond farewell to Asia, the area of the world he and his aides consider to have been perhaps among the greatest foreign-policy successes of his six years in office.

Shultz acknowledged that his final trip through East Asia and the Pacific came at a time of important changes throughout the region.

During talks in Beijing last week, Chinese officials told the United States to expect new, possibly dramatic improvements in China’s relations with the Soviet Union, U.S. officials said. Those changes could include an unprecedented summit meeting between Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, perhaps even before the end of this year, the sources said.

“They (Chinese officials) put us on notice it will kind of work that way, that even summitry becomes possible,” said one U.S. official. “They were providing us assurances. They were saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to go contrary to your (American) interests.’ ”

China and the Soviet Union, the world’s two largest Communist states, became ideological adversaries in the early 1960s. At one point, after a series of border skirmishes in 1969, they were on the verge of full-scale war.

Cambodia Issue Easing

China has been saying for years that the main obstacle to a normalization of Sino-Soviet relations has been Soviet support for Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia. Now, apparently under Soviet pressure, Hanoi has pledged to withdraw its troops from Cambodia and is entering talks aimed at settling Cambodia’s political future.

According to U.S. officials, China made clear that prospects for a Deng-Gorbachev summit depend on continued Soviet help for a Cambodia settlement. Shultz said Thursday that the Soviets “underwrite” Hanoi’s occupation of Cambodia by giving Vietnam aid worth about $2 billion a year.

In his overview of U.S. policy in Asia, Shultz noted Thursday that the United States has not completely abandoned the idea of waging an ideological struggle for capitalism in Asia.

“In the next century, America’s engagement with Asia must intensify because--and not despite the fact--that there is an ever-growing number of capable countries coming onto the world scene,” he said. “Our engagement must be more active than ever because the socialist powers are seeking to become more actively involved in the region as well.”

The main aspect of American policy toward Asia is security, Shultz said. “The U.S.-Japan alliance remains the cornerstone of our policy in the region, enhancing the security of other friends and allies alike.”

In an apparent reference to the ongoing debates in the Philippines and South Korea about the U.S. military presence there, the secretary declared:

“Some wonder whether it might not be better to go it alone. Their reassessment is appropriate. . . . But they should not forget that our collective efforts have kept the peace for 40 years. . . .”

Shultz indicated that the United States may eventually normalize relations with Vietnam. “The United States, together with our allies and friends in Asia, looks forward to Vietnam’s rejoining the community of nations,” he said.

Discussing Cambodia, Shultz said the United States and the Soviet Union have been trying to work out a Cambodian settlement. He said he and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze have had “increasingly frequent exchanges” about Cambodia.

While in Beijing last week, Shultz invited China to join the United States in improving relations with the Soviet Union.

Thursday, however, he warned that China and other countries should continue to look skeptically at Gorbachev’s policies in Asia.