WASHINGTON: The United States must be an important part of any new East Asian framework, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday, cautioning against defining the region in closed or racial terms.

At a gala dinner where he was conferred a lifetime achievement award for fostering US-Asean ties, he said that the US would remain the sole superpower for two or three more decades despite the fallout from last year's global crisis.

While China may be rapidly gaining economic and geopolitical clout, Beijing is neither willing nor ready to take on equal responsibility for managing the international system. Therefore, the US should not be shut out of any new East Asian architecture, Mr Lee said.

'It would be a serious mistake for the region to define East Asia in closed, or worse, in racial terms,' he told about 450 political and business elites at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Leaders in the region have been mulling over the prospects of a new framework or architecture to better define their strategic concerns. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, for instance, has been pushing the idea of an Asia-Pacific community. More recently, Japanese Premier Yukio Hatoyama has offered a rival plan for an East Asian community.

There have been concerns that the US might be sidelined in these new regional frameworks, though some say such plans are too sketchy on details to be assessed properly.

But Mr Lee said the strategic motivations on the ground are very real, adding: 'Growth has created growing strategic complexity between China, Japan, South Korea, India, Asean and Australia. Each will try to position itself to achieve maximum security, stability and influence.'

US President Barack Obama will have a chance to take the pulse of the region himself next month when he visits Asia and attends the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore.

Asked what message Mr Obama should bring to the region, Mr Lee replied without hesitation: Engagement.

'The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance,' he said.

'If the US does not recognise that the Asia-Pacific is where the economic centre of action will be, and it loses that economic superiority or lead that it has in the Pacific, it will lose it worldwide.'

The black-tie dinner hosted by the US-Asean Business Council was not entirely dominated by uncertainties of the future. It was also an occasion to look back and pay glowing tribute to Mr Lee for his role in boosting trade and economic ties between the US and Asean over the years.

A stellar cast of the US capital's political and business heavyweights turned out to honour him, including three US Presidents who sent messages in writing or via video.

President Obama sent a letter read out by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, while images of former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush were projected on giant screens as they paid tribute to Mr Lee.

Mr Lee is the first recipient of the council's lifetime achievement award, which coincides with its 25th anniversary.

Two long-time friends - elder statesmen Dr Henry Kissinger and Dr George Shultz - also flew into the capital for the dinner.

Dr Kissinger praised him for being a 'seminal figure' who has helped shape thinking about the most important long-term challenge in the US - building an organic relationship with Asia that goes beyond the Cold War mindset.

Indeed, this challenge has only grown more complex since last year's global financial crisis, the Minister Mentor said in his keynote address.

He noted that Mr Obama's decision to replace the Group of Eight forum with the larger Group of 20 format was an implicit acknowledgement that emerging big powers like China, India and Brazil will have a voice in managing 'a changed world order.'

But 'it does not herald a multi-polar world with parity between the different poles', he said.

-end of ST article