U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry outlined objectives and challenges faced by his country in Asia-Pacific in a policy speech at the Honolulu's prestigious East-West Center last week. He was speaking at the conclusion of his latest trip to the region, the sixth such visit since assuming office, which obviously shows the strategic importance of the region.

Kerry talked about several issues and identified four key challenges, including fostering sustainable economic growth, transforming the climate change crisis into a clean energy revolution, turning territorial conflicts into regional cooperation and empowering individuals through human rights and political freedom.

It is not mere a coincidence that China is part and parcel of all policy objectives Kerry outlined. The economic growth is at the top of his priorities and Kerry promised to tackle it through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), the 12-nation free trade agreement proposed and pushed forward by the United States. The problem with the TPP is that China is not part of it and rival Japan could play an important economic role after it signs the agreement. Over the years, Sino-U.S. trade ties have shown positive growth despite several security issues, which occasionally create bitterness between the two countries, but as they go head to head, new issues are emerging. For the sake of sustainable regional economic growth, China, the United States, Japan and the ASEAN nations should be on the same page. I don't think this will be possible in the near future, due to a myriad of political and security reasons.

The climate change is a collective threat for the whole of mankind. Kerry mentioned that some of the Solomon Islands, which he visited during his latest trip, faced inundation due to rising sea levels. The United States and China are the two top emitters of the greenhouses gases which are choking the planet. The two biggest economies in the world are at loggerheads about how to deal with the problem. The United States has already achieved a level of industrial growth where it can cap the emissions of deadly gases, but demanding the same of China or other developing nations could deprive them of the cheap and fast-track industrial development needed by these emerging economies. The differences among the first world and recently industrialized nations like China, which has still to go a long way to pull its masses out of poverty and backwardness, are real and require serious efforts, involving concessions. The clean energy phenomenon needs a lot of new investment. There is no mechanism insight to provide billions of dollars of money to transform the old industrial machinery with an eco-friendly system.

The issue of transforming the territorial conflict into regional cooperation is even more complex. Kerry did not elaborate too much on how to achieve this but his reference is clear, as the most serious regional disputes involve China and countries which are close allies and partners of the United States. Whether it is the dispute over islands in the East China Sea with Japan or in South China Sea with the Philippines and Vietnam, it is clear on which side Kerry stands. It makes his position less tenable and far less acceptable for the Chinese.

Now come to the issue of human rights and political reforms. China is once again at the center as the United States has often criticized it over rights and freedom issues, drawing angry rebuttals from the People's Republic. Kerry also mentioned Myanmar, Thailand and North Korea but his strategic remarks targeted China. He also dwelt at length on ties with Beijing and hoped to dodge the trap of rivalries between the competing economies, but there are other issues. The United States needs to develop a uniform yardstick to measure rights abuses that does not overlook some of the gross violations of fundamental human rights at the hands of "friendly" regimes in the Middle East.

Kerry was eloquent in highlighting the objectives and challenges but fell short of any perfect recipe to deal with the complex issues. The real issue is how to balance and manage relations with China, the fastest growing global economy, and traditional allies like Japan. Initiatives like the TPP provide partial solutions. The "super agenda" just presents one side of the story, what Kerry wants. What other people think about these problems or how they want to go ahead is another world of possibilities.

The writer is a Pakistani analyst.

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