The showdown between the United States and China reached Singapore even before US President Barack Obama landed in the city-state for the APEC summit, following a revelation on Saturday that Obama endorsed the little-known Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The proposal quickly raised speculations that the US aimed to reduce China's influence in the region, as instead of advancing more solid and established pathways to regional integration, such as ASEAN plus Three (10 ASEAN members plus China, South Korea and Japan) or ASEAN plus Six (ASEAN plus Three and Australia, New Zealand and India), the world's biggest economy chose a pathway in which China, the world's fastest-growing economy, was not a member.
Obama announced Washington's intention to engage in the expansion of the TPP, which comprises Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, Australia, Peru, the US and Vietnam in a plan to create an Asian-Pacific free-trade zone covering 2.6 billion people.
"The United States will also be engaging with the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st century trade agreement."
Obama's announcement was received with excitement by APEC members like Singapore and Australia, with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong telling other APEC leaders,"You may not have heard of the TPP, but I think.this little seed we hope will in time grow into a significant tree and pillar for free trade and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific".
Following Obama's announcement, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet told the APEC business forum that his country was working to join the TPP.
"Vietnam is working with other partners to study the possibility of joining the TPP. So we are working very hard on that matter."
However, other APEC members were cautious about the US' proposal, with a number of diplomats in Indonesia saying the TPP could crowd out efforts already taken by ASEAN and its trade partners so far.
China, especially, has established free trade area agreements with ASEAN and a number of individual members, a sign many said demonstrated that ASEAN had become more dependent on China.
Every year, ASEAN holds meeting with all its partners in the forum known as the East Asia Summit, where ASEAN plus Six meet to discuss ways to enhance integration, trade and investment beside political and security issues.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said that while Indonesia would study the proposal, it was better to use the existing building blocks to build greater Asia-Pacific integration.
"We can start from the existing mechanism. We ourselves already have a forum, like ASEAN plus One, ASEAN plus Three and ASEAN plus Six," she said.
In all the three greater regional forums ASEAN involved, the grouping always insisted on being in control of the agenda of the forums.
An ASEAN diplomat said that while some ASEAN members agreed with the US' proposal, the majority would likely reject it if it took away the ASEAN members' focus and energy from the groupings' current process of integration.
