US foreign policy in Asia

Yesterday I heard a talk by a McCain adviser about the candidate's position on foreign policy toward Asia.  I can't refer to him by name because his talk was off the record.

He said that one of his biggest worries for US strategic relationships with Asian countries is how the United States' handling of the North Korea nuclear weapons issue has affected our credibility with Japan and South Korea.  I think he was referring to the controversy regarding how the United States tried to cover up the fact that Pakistan (a U.S. ally) was a middle man in a transfer of nuclear material between North Korea and Libya.  Or maybe he was referring to the Bush administration's general diplomatic process.  But his point was that there is a trust problem that U.S. diplomats need to address.  He said that whatever the U.S. does next, its actions have to be lock-step with Japan and South Korea, implying that maybe he thinks the United States has been working at cross purposes with these countries lately.

He also told an interesting story about his conversation with a high level Bush administration person, who you have definitely heard of but I won't name because he said it was off-the-record.  He had called to question that person's planned absence at a summit of Southeast Asian countries.   He described various reasons why it was important for this official to show up, which sounded fine to me.  And that official said something along the lines of "If you want Southeast Asia to take you seriously, you have to show you're serious on the Middle East peace process."  Meaning that the Middle East was sort of a vehicle for the United States to be effective in diplomacy in other regions as well.  

I was surprised because it sounds like a dangerous approach, pinning diplomatic success in Asia to progress in a very difficult conflict.  But the McCain guy didn't offer commentary on that... just that it was an interesting window into how some members of the foreign policy establishment think.