Message echoes beyond our shores

IN a speech of high strategy, Barack Obama has put his imprint on a greater US commitment to the Asia-Pacific to be pursued "with every element of American power".

The Obama vision for a larger US Asian role is based on three ideas: delivering security, boosting free market prosperity and human rights meaning "dignity for all".

In a message to China, the President said the US posture in Asia would be "more flexible with new capabilities".

Upgraded Australia-US military ties fit into this wider picture. The Obama magic left the Australian parliament swooning yesterday. Labor, Coalition and Greens members all gave every sign of being enthralled. This was a master orator in action, more impressive in the flesh than on television.

In his address to the national parliament, Obama spoke not just to Australia. He spoke to the region and to the world in one of the defining geostrategic speeches of his presidency.

He spoke to the powerful and the oppressed. He spoke to Beijing and to Washington.

The President demanded attention with his statement "I've therefore made a deliberate and strategic decision" that the US will play a stronger role in the Asia-Pacific's future. Confronting fears of US decline, Obama said the defence budget would be reduced but this "will not - I repeat, will not - come at the expense of the Asia-Pacific".

The US has been heading in this direction for some time. But Obama's declaration from Canberra is the ultimate imprint. The President was direct and assertive.

"This is the future we seek in the Asia-Pacific - security, prosperity and dignity for all," he said. "That's what we stand for. That's who we are. That's the future we will pursue with allies and friends."

He gift-wrapped tough messages. The US alliances are being hardened up to guarantee peace. The US will keep its "unique ability to project power". Nations are expected to abide by the rules, largely America's. China needs to change its ways and its policies.

This new Asia-Pacific focus is also about more jobs and better exports for the US. The strategy is tied to Obama's domestic needs.

"The Asia-Pacific is critical to achieving my highest priority: creating jobs and opportunity for the American people," Obama said.

He preaches inclusion at every stage. It is inclusion based on universal values, the originating American message to the world. Witness his subtle yet lethal wedge on China. Obama said "prosperity without freedom is just another form of poverty".

The name China sprang into everyone's mind - proof of Obama's skill at integrating hard and soft power. If George W. Bush had given Australia the same messages the alarm bells would have rung across the land. With Obama, love was in the air.

With his eye on US politics, Obama explained that playing "by the rules" meant respecting workers' rights, upholding intellectual property and letting currencies find their market value. It was a neat summary of the US grievances against China.

Obama depicts the Asia-Pacific as the region of hope. He is quitting Iraq and making a transition in Afghanistan. "The tide of war is receding," he said. Asia, by contrast, is a region of opportunity.

Geostrategic events, US economic woes and Asia's high growth have generated Obama's new strategy. His core message on China is that America seeks co-operative relations but will pressure China on market rules, international norms and human rights.

He finished with a hymn to universal values - from soldiers in blue helmets keeping the peace to women saving girls from brothels.

"History is on the side of the free," Obama said. It is the banner he will take to the Asia-Pacific.