BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — With
an eye on China, President Barack Obama and the prime ministers of Japan
and Australia are poised to commit their countries to closer
cooperation on security in the Asia Pacific region.
But their
scheduled meeting Sunday, the first since 2007 among leaders of the
three allies, risked antagonizing Beijing after a week when Obama
reached a surprising level of consensus with Chinese President Xi
Jinping on climate change and trade, and Japan and China took steps to
improve their relationship.
China
has viewed Obama's efforts to deepen alliances with other countries in
the region, particularly on security issues, as an attempt to counter
Beijing's rise.
White House
officials insisted that the three-way talks on the sidelines of the
Group of 20 economic summit were not meant to send a message to China.
But
in advance of Obama's meeting with Japan's Shinzo Abe and Australia's
Tony Abbott, the president pressed China to "adhere to the same rules as
other nations — whether in trade or on the seas."
"By
virtue of its size and its remarkable growth, China will inevitably
play a critical role in the future of this region," Obama said Saturday
in a speech at the University of Queensland. "And the question is, what
kind of role will it play?"
An Obama administration
official said the three-way meeting had been in the works for a year and
that agreements were expected on increasing military cooperation and
helping countries in Southeast Asia bolster their maritime capacity.
Also
expected was an announcement on cybersecurity, a further source of
tension between the U.S. and China. Ebola and Islamic State militants
were additional topics planned for discussion.
Australia was
Obama's last stop on a weeklong trip that began in China and Myanmar. He
arrived politically weakened at home by the Democratic Party's election
defeats Nov. 4. The president has tried to show the region's leaders
that he retained the ability to deliver on promises to deepen U.S.
engagement in Asia and the Pacific, an effort he sees as a central part
of his foreign policy.
"There
are times when people have been skeptical of this rebalance, they're
wondering whether America has the staying power to sustain it," Obama
said. "I'm here to say that American leadership in the Asia Pacific will
always be a fundamental focus of my foreign policy."
In
China, he emerged with an ambitious agreement to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, as well as a deal to extend visa lengths and move forward on
tariff reductions on high-tech goods.
But despite those areas of
agreement, there are major sources of tension between the powers,
particularly Beijing's provocative actions in territorial disputes in
waters off its borders.
The
conflict between China and Japan over a string of uninhabited islands in
the East China Sea has been intense, with Beijing setting up an air
defense zone over the area last year that was denounced by the U.S.
During
a trip to Tokyo this year, Obama pledged to fulfill America's treaty
obligations to defend Japan if it were to come under attack from China
as part of the conflict over the islands.
In
recent days, China and Japan have acted to try to ease tensions. Xi and
Abe held their first-ever meeting in Beijing this past week, a
discussion the Japanese leader called a "first step" toward reconciling.
Australia,
the G-20 host, has played an important role in Obama's efforts to
bolster the U.S. military presence in the region in order to be a
counterweight to China. During a trip to Australia in 2011, Obama
announced a plan to rotate 2,500 U.S. Marines through a military base in
the northern city of Darwin.