Stressing Region’s Importance, Clinton Ends Asia Trip

Capping a 12-day tour of the Pacific Rim, President Clinton on Tuesday stressed the United States’ commitment to the region while pledging not to impose an American vision of government on any other country.

At the same time, however, he singled out Myanmar for a special rebuke, calling it a nation that has failed to move toward democracy and has tolerated a major narcotics trade.

Clinton’s comments came at the end of a postelection journey through Australia, the Philippines and Thailand during which he met with Asian leaders, won an agreement for top-level summits with China, helped push through a far-reaching trade proposal cutting tariffs on information technology and reinforced U.S. ties with Pacific Rim governments.

Throughout the trip, the president suggested that the region has become at least as important to America’s long-term interests as Europe, a significant shift from Washington’s traditional focus across the Atlantic.

“Three years ago I took my first trip overseas as president, to Japan and Korea,” Clinton told an audience at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “Now, shortly after my reelection, again my first trip is to Asia, to Australia, the Philippines and Thailand.”

Clinton digressed briefly from his observations about the United States’ commitment to the Pacific to single out Thailand’s neighbor to the north and west--Myanmar, formerly known as Burma--for a presidential scolding.

“The role of drugs in Burma’s economic and political life and the regime’s refusal to honor its own pledge to move to multi-party democracy are really two sides of the same coin, for both represent the absence of the rule of law,” Clinton said. “Every nation has an interest in promoting true political dialogue in Burma.”

Later, the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton toured Bangkok’s Grand Palace, a spectacular Buddhist shrine that features the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. At one point, after leaving one of the walled compound’s gilded buildings, the president exclaimed: “Have you ever seen anything like it? Unbelievable.”

Clinton attended a state dinner in his honor, hosted by the world’s longest-reigning monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, before leaving for Washington via Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska.

As the Clinton administration sees it, the president’s Asia swing represents a move forward from the more halting, uncertain efforts in foreign policy during his first years in office.

White House aides are calling the trip a success, given the smooth talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and South Korean President Kim Young Sam and the deal to liberalize trade in information technology--much sought by the United States--that was achieved during a meeting of Pacific Rim leaders in Manila.

On Tuesday, Clinton summoned up a vision of the Pacific as a place where human rights are respected and economies are booming.

“The United States and Thailand, for all the distance and differences between us, share a common vision, the dream of an Asia-Pacific region where economic growth and democratic ideals are advancing steadily,” he said.

The United States, he added, does “not seek to impose our vision of the world or any particular form of government on others. But we do believe that freedom and justice are the birthright of humankind.”