US builds ties with Laos

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has embarked on a three-nation tour to Asia, including China, as Washington is trying to get Beijing to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said views of common interest are to be discussed during Kerry’s visit, and that China hopes meetings would strengthen communication between the two countries.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he looks forward to having solid conversations with China about one of the most serious issues in the world today.

The trip to Vientiane also paves the way for a summit hosted next month by US President Barack Obama in California with the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In Beijing, Kerry is expected to accentuate the need for a united front in response to this month’s North Korean nuclear test through additional U.N. sanctions, a senior official of the U.S. State Department said.

Over the past decade, US policy toward Cambodia has often been torn between a desire to build closer ties with the Hun Sen government and a concern about his suppression of human rights, an issue that has been kept alive by a vocal Cambodian diaspora in the USA, which is strongly anti-Hun Sen and has been a key source of funding for Cambodian opposition parties.

The Obama administration has made relations with Asia a diplomatic priority, in particular bolstering ASEAN as a counterpoint to Chinese regional power.

Earlier, the Secretary of State visited Switzerland and Saudi Arabia.

“We’re now down to about 50 a year”, Kerry said, adding, “And 50 a year is still too many”.

Kerry’s visit to Beijing, set to begin on Wednesday, will be closely watched as a gauge of how strong a punishment China will mete out to the recalcitrant ally that China also considers a strategic buffer against the United States and its allies.

“Repression, human rights abuses, and impunity in Cambodia must stop”, reads the open letter, which was released on Sunday and signed by the directors of the International Federation for Human Rights, Adhoc, Licadho, Forum-Asia and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. Several ASEAN states are embroiled in an increasingly bitter spat with China over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

The Cambodian government has been pushing for more favorable trade deals with the USA, which allows duty-free exports of numerous Kingdom’s goods, but still taxes the country’s largest export – garments.

In Laos, he is not scheduled to meet with Bounnhang Vorachit, the 78-year-old vice president whom the Communist Party on Friday chose to be its new leader.

In Beijing Kerry plans “in depth” discussions on the South China Sea, a source of increasing tension between China and ASEAN countries and the United States due to China’s building of artificial islands suitable for use as military bases, the official said.