Federal workers have been protesting to demand and
end to the shutdown
The US commitment to Asia remains undiminished
despite President Barack Obama's absence from
regional summits, Secretary of State John Kerry
has said.
Mr Kerry was speaking at the start of the Apec summit
in Indonesia.
Mr Obama cancelled his Asia trip after the partial US
government shutdown.
The US government closed non-essential operations on
Tuesday after Congress failed to agree a new budget.
Thousands of federal employees have been sent home.
Some are working but not paid.
US-EU trade negotiations have also been postponed
because of the shutdown.
'Robust democracy'
As world leaders began gathering for the Asia-Pacific
Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Bali, Mr
Kerry sought to allay concerns that Washington was
reducing its global engagement.
"None of what is happening in Washington diminishes
one iota our commitment to our partners in Asia," he
said.
He said the dispute with the Republicans in the US
Congress was "an example of the robustness of our
democracy".
But at the same time, he urged Congress to think about
how the US was perceived internationally when "we
can't get our own act together".
Mr Kerry said areas where the shutdown was affecting
US foreign policy funding included:
delays in security assistance for Israel
nearly all staff suspended at the treasury
department's Office of Foreign Asset Control,
which monitors sanctions on states like Iran
Mr Obama had been due to begin a four-nation Asian
trip on Saturday, heading to Bali and Brunei before
travelling on to Malaysia and the Philippines.
The White House said Mr Obama's decision to cancel
his Asia trip was made due to the "difficulty in moving
forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown".
Republicans who control the House of Representatives
refused to approve a budget, saying they would only do
so if Mr Obama's healthcare reform law was delayed or
stripped of funding.
Mr Obama and the Democrats have refused, noting the
law was passed in 2010, subsequently approved by the
Supreme Court, and was a central issue in the 2012
election which Mr Obama won comfortably.
On Friday, Democrats and Republicans appeared no
closer to finding a way out of the impasse.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner insisted Mr
Obama and Democratic Senate leaders open
negotiations on the shutdown.
"All we're asking for is to sit down and have a
discussion," he said. "This isn't some damn game."
Mr Obama later said he was happy to hold talks with
the Republicans, "but we can't do it with a gun held to
the head of the American people".
The US also faces running out of money and defaulting
on its debt if there is no agreement to raise government
borrowing limits later this month.
'Worse than 2008'
US officials had been due in Brussels next week to
discuss a sweeping free trade pact designed to boost
bilateral trade between the European Union and the US.
On Friday, US trade representative Michael Froman
informed the EU that financial and staffing constraints
made it impossible to send a full negotiating team to
Brussels.
He stressed that Washington would continue working
with the EU on drawing up the deal, but would have to
wait until the shutdown was over.
Reacting to the US announcement, European Trade
Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the delay was
unfortunate.
"But let me underline that it in no way distracts us
from our overall aim of achieving an ambitious trade
and investment deal," he added.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), said warned earlier
that a failure to raise the US debt ceiling would be a far
worse threat to the global economy than the current
shutdown.
She said it was "mission critical" that the US agreed a
new debt limit.
Comments
Post a Comment