By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
A policy group is advising U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to make permanent the current six-nation talks that are focused on North Korean denuclearization. According to the Brookings Institution, a progressive think tank in Washington, these talks should become a permanent regional framework.
The policy group said such a forum could also help the United States develop stronger cooperative ties with Asian powers. The United Sates, along with Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas, make up the participating members of the talks.
Brookings said the incoming Obama administration should also focus its attention on other major pan-Asian forums as a way to boost U.S.-Asia partnerships involving diplomacy, security as well as economic matters.
``On Jan. 20, 2009, the next American President will inherit crises in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Darfur, Pakistan, and the Middle East," according to a new Brookings report, titled ``A Plan for Action ― A New Era of International Cooperation for a Changed World: 2009, 2010, and Beyond."
Advisory members for the study included: John Podesta, president of Center for American Progress, a Washington-based progressive think tank; former U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright; former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry; and Strobe Talbott, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State who currently serves as president at the Brookings Institution.
The report said, ``America needs global partners: to combat threats to the American people, to wield influence with actors such as North Korea and Iran, to share the burden on complex challenges, and to sustain global systems that allow the United States access to capital and markets critical to economic growth in a dismal domestic budget environment."
``As part of a wider engagement strategy with Asia, the next American President must also focus policy attention and resources on Asian regional security arrangements such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the six-party talks to strengthen the infrastructure for cooperation among Asian powers,"
Meanwhile, the six-party talk will resume early next month. National delegates from participating nations are scheduled to meet on Dec. 8 in China to discuss the nuclear issue. The upcoming meeting is expected to focus on a possible verification protocol for denuclearization. Members will also discuss providing compensatory aid including supplies of fuel oil to the North.
Washington expressed hope for the upcoming six-party meeting. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a press conference Wednesday that ``the focus on that meeting will be for the six parties to sign on to the verification protocol that has been initialed by the United States and North Korea on behalf of the parties."
``The disabling has resumed, and it needs to continue to conclusion. But this verification protocol is now the key," Rice said, according to reports.