President Barack Obama will use a state visit to Japan on Thursday to try to reassure Tokyo and other Asian allies of his commitment to ramping up United States engagement in the region, according to the Associated Press.
Chinese officials have reportedly complained that Washington's real aim is to contain Beijing's rise, the AP reported.
Obama will be treated to a display of pomp and ceremony meant to show that the U.S.-Japan alliance, the main pillar of America's security strategy in Asia, remains solid at a time of rising tensions over growing Chinese assertiveness and North Korean nuclear threats, according to the AP.
The talks were aimed towards a two-way trade pact seen as crucial to a broader trans-Pacific agreement that Obama has championed, the AP reported.
The challenge for Obama during his week-long, four-nation tour will be to convince Asian partners that Washington is serious about its promised strategic "pivot" towards the region, while at the same time not harming U.S. ties with China, the world's second-biggest economy, according to the AP.
Before Obama arrived on Wednesday night, Chinese state media criticized U.S. policy in the region as "a carefully calculated scheme to cage the rapidly developing Asian giant," the AP reported.
Obama told Japan's Yomiuri newspaper that while Washington welcomed China's peaceful rise, "our engagement with China does not and will not come at the expense of Japan or any other ally," according to the AP. "Disputes need to be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not intimidation and coercion," Obama said in a written response to questions from Japan's Yomiuri newspaper.
During his trip through Asia, Obama will also visit South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, the AP reported. Some of China's neighbors worry that Obama's apparent inability to rein in Russia, which annexed Crimea last month, could send a message of weakness to China.
