Clinton Says U.S. Has a Stake in Asian Security

HANOI, Vietnam -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into a fresh spat between China and Japan on Saturday, saying the United States has a key stake in territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors and will remain a major power in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a speech to East Asian leaders in Vietnam, Clinton declared that America has a direct national security interest in seeing peaceful resolutions to competing claims over islands that have led to a spike in animosity between China and other countries in the region, notably U.S. ally Japan.

"The United States has a national interest in the freedom of navigation and unimpeded lawful commerce," Clinton told a meeting of the East Asia Summit in Hanoi. "And when disputes arise over maritime territory, we are committed to resolving them peacefully based on customary international law."

Her comments come as China and Japan's damaged relations took a fresh hit, dimming hopes for talks between the two regional powers and highlighting tensions that have rattled nerves across the Asia-Pacific.

Sino-Japanese relations appeared to be mending when Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Japanese counterpart Seiji Maehara met on the sidelines of the summit on Friday, paving the way for expected talks between the countries' two leaders.

But at the last minute, China called off the meeting and blasted Japan, accusing it of making untrue statements about islands in the East China Sea, claimed by both nations. The territory is at the heart of the dispute, following a collision there last month between a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese patrol boats.

The row that followed included protests, canceled meetings and Chinese restrictions on key metal exports that drew international concern, including from the United States.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue told reporters in Hanoi that Japan was turning the contested islands -- called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan -- into a "hot topic" on the sidelines of the summit hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, by talking to the media and holding discussions with other countries prior to the meeting.

"The Japanese side should take responsibility for ruining the atmosphere for leaders of the two countries," he said.

The U.S. has appealed for the two countries to resolve the matter peacefully but has made clear it sides with Japan in the current imbroglio. After meeting with Japan's foreign minister in Hawaii on Wednesday, Clinton said the islands are covered by a U.S.-Japan mutual security pact, although Washington takes no position on their ultimate sovereignty.

That infuriated Beijing, which on Friday said it was "strongly dissatisfied" with her comments and lashed out at both the U.S. and Japan.

Southeast Asian countries have become increasingly rattled in recent months following a number of aggressive maritime moves by the Communist giant.

Clinton's message, while couched in diplomatic niceties, was clear: China must not use its growing economic and military strength to bully its neighbors. Previous similar remarks from Clinton and other U.S. officials have drawn tough criticism from the Chinese, who claim sovereignty over vast swaths of territory in the East and South China seas.

She praised China for taking some steps to engage with its neighbors about setting up a formal and binding code of conduct in dealing with the disputes, which extend to other strategic and potentially oil-rich islands in the region. But aides said her remarks were a signal to China that the U.S. is looking for far more.

In her comments to the summit, Clinton said the U.S. had no intention of relinquishing its role as a dominant power in the Asia-Pacific, asserting that "we will continue to leverage the strength of our bilateral relationships (and) continue expanding our emerging partnerships with a wide range of countries."

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Former President Clinton Campaigns for Dems in Michigan, Minnesota

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Former President Bill Clinton tied his Sunday pitch for Democratic candidates in Michigan to football, warning that Democratic voters must prepare for the Nov. 2 election as much as unbeaten Michigan State University has to prepare for its next opponent.

"If I were in Lansing, I bet half the town, men and women, could go through the fourth quarter against Northwestern play by play," he said, referring to the Spartans' 35-27 come-from-behind victory Saturday. "In football, the facts are important and we know them."

When it comes to the economy, however, Clinton said people are too often forgetting about how deep a hole the country was in and how far it has come under President Barack Obama. While acknowledging that the economy hasn't fully recovered, Clinton said Obama is moving the country in the right direction.

"That is not cause for applause, but it should give people pause before they throw out the present coaching staff and bring back the coaching staff" that left the country with a losing season during eight years under former President George W. Bush administration, Clinton said.

Clinton got standing ovations at the start and end of his half-hour speech, despite talking about the No. 5-ranked Michigan State team during the event inside an auditorium at the University of Michigan, whose football team isn't in The Associated Press Top 25. He was joined on the stage at by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, who's facing a tea party-backed Republican in his 27th run for office.

Clinton was heading to Minnesota on Sunday night. There, he's supporting Democratic congressional candidate Tarryl Clark, who's challenging Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann in the nation's most expensive U.S. House race.

Clinton's appearance in Ann Arbor was his second of several stops in Michigan on Sunday.

He also spoke to about 500 people in Detroit to rally voters on behalf of gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero, the Lansing mayor who is trailing Republican Rick Snyder in recent polls. He also spoke to several hundred people in Battle Creek to support Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, who faces a tough re-election bid against Republican Tim Walberg.

Clinton's audience of more than 1,000 in Ann Arbor had to wait three hours to see the former president and Dingell, after Clinton's appearance in Detroit got behind schedule. Clinton said it was important to re-elect Dingell and listed some of his accomplishments, including pushing through a health care reform law.

Dingell, who has served half a century in Congress, is running against Republican cardiologist Rob Steele. A recent poll showed Dingell leading by 17 points in the 15th District, but Clinton wants to help firm up Dingell's prospects.

Dingell said Republicans are trying to take control of Congress, but vowed: "We ain't a gonna let them do it." He gave Clinton a University of Michigan baseball cap during the appearance.

Clinton's impassioned plea to students to make sure they voted as they had in 2008 struck a cord with University of Michigan senior Katherine Buck. The 22-year-old said she definitely plans to vote, but hadn't made up her mind if she would pick Bernero for governor or Republican Rick Snyder.

Asked when she would make up her mind, she said, "It probably won't happen until right before the election."

Republicans downplayed Clinton's visit, and have tried to tie local Democratic candidates to less popular Democrats, such as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or President Barack Obama.

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Clinton Urges Karzai to Ease Ban on Private Security Firms or Risk Losing Aid

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to persuade his government to modify its imminent ban on private security companies, which threatens to shut down or stall billions of dollars in development projects across the nation.

Clinton suggested formulating a joint plan to steadily phase out private security companies without disrupting the work of contractors who employ private guards to protect their workers, projects and facilities, said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

The telephone call was part of intense negotiations that U.S. and other Western diplomats are conducting with Afghan officials this weekend over Karzai's decision to shut down private security contractors by Dec. 17. He claims the private guards are undermining his nation's army and police, and wants Afghan security forces to take on the job of providing protection for the aid workers. Western officials argue that the hand-over must be phased in so projects are not disrupted.

Crowley said Clinton pledged in the phone call to work together with the Afghan government to provide a smooth transition.

Companies running aid projects can't legally operate in Afghanistan without insurance, and the insurers aren't ready to trust local security forces, which are not fully trained, according to a diplomatic official familiar with the talks. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said money that donor nations spend to pay private security guards to protect their projects will not be automatically redirected to the Afghan government for the Afghan security forces.

Contractors who are involved in building roads, schools and hundreds of other development projects, have already started winding down programs, saying they will have to stop their work if they can't employ guards to protect their workers and facilities.

"We're not aware that any U.S.-funded development projects have stopped operating, but without clarity our partners are making plans for the possibility they are unable to continue their work here," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Saturday.

Karzai agreed earlier this year to allow private guards to keep working for foreign governments at embassies, other diplomatic outposts and military facilities. But he has refused to extend the exemption.

Private security operators -- some of which are poorly regulated, reckless and effectively operate outside local law -- have become a point of contention between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO coalition forces and the international community.

Karzai estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 people work for security companies. According to the Pentagon, there are about 26,000 private security contractors working in Afghanistan for 37 different companies -- 17 of them Afghan-owned.

The companies protect everything from development projects and NATO supply convoys to private houses.

The weekend negotiations involve all the top players in the Afghan capital, including U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry, NATO's top civilian official Mark Sedwill and the U.N.'s top envoy to Afghanistan, Steffan de Mistura, who plans to meet with Karzai on Sunday. The State Department in Washington was being kept appraised of the discussions.

Sedwill, who strongly supports Karzai's policy to shut down the private security firms, acknowledged that the international community did not properly respond to Karzai's long-standing concerns about the conduct of some of the private security outfits -- many of which are unlicensed and act like private armies.

"We are working with the government to implement the president's decree so that the Afghan security forces can take responsibility for protecting the range of work by the international community here on which the prosperity and stability of Afghanistan depends," Sedwill said in a statement.

Steven O'Connor, a spokesman for Development Alternatives Inc., a Bethesda, Maryland based organization that runs U.S.-funded projects in Afghanistan, said Friday that the group was planning an early shut down of its Local Governance and Community Development Project, which employs more than 800 Afghans in more than 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

He said the company remains hopeful that the decree will be modified, but if the ban remains in its current form, DAI will shut down the project by the end of December. He said DAI had developed contingency plans to wind down all six of its projects in Afghanistan.

The company has suffered violence in the past, including a July 2 suicide bombing at its compound in Kunduz, killing four people.

British aid worker Linda Norgrove, who was kidnapped on Sept. 26 and killed less than two weeks later during a rescue attempt, also worked for the group.

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