By SHADA ISLAM
BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT

UNITED States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Asian tour spotlights key differences in American and European attitudes towards a region which has often taken a back seat in both US and EU foreign policy.

Washington's decision to make Asia the first port of call for America's top diplomat breaks with a long-standing tradition that a new US administration sends its secretary of state first to Europe or the Middle East.

EU policymakers are taking comfort in the fact that President Barack Obama will spend several days in Europe in early April when he attends a summit of Group of Twenty (G-20) countries in London and then goes to France and Germany for Nato's 60th anniversary commemorations.

Mrs Clinton will also hold talks with EU representatives when she is in Brussels on March 4-5 for a meeting of Nato foreign ministers.

Still, the elevation of Asia to a top US foreign policy priority sends a strong message to Europe: while the transatlantic relationship will be important in tackling challenges like global terrorism, climate change and the worldwide economic slowdown, America believes forging a strong new partnership with Asia is even more crucial and indispensable.

Not unnoticed in Brussels was Mrs Clinton's call for a 'trilateral dialogue' between Japan, the US and China which would allow the three countries to discuss global issues of common concern, including environmental problems.

Eurocentric policymakers in European Union capitals are understandably miffed at being consigned to the second rank of US allies.

But instead of nursing their wounded pride, EU governments should be considering how they too can revive their relationship with Asia.

As such, the US administration's fresh look at the Asian landscape, with promises of a 'rigorous and persistent engagement' with the region, should be a wake-up call to the 27 EU governments to craft a new strategy to redefine their political, economic and security relationship with the region.

The EU needs to take a fresh look at its wider strategic goals in Asia, the impact on Europe of the seismic changes taking place in the region, and how the two sides can better engage with each other on issues like dealing with the financial crisis, climate change, fuel costs and rising food prices as well as counter-terrorism cooperation and efforts to defuse political and military conflicts.

Such a new strategic analysis could also have the additional benefit of helping to boost the EU's profile in Asia.

True, EU governments are more than aware of Asia's growing clout and, especially, the key role that China, India and Japan will play in engineering a global economic recovery. Attending a meeting of 45 Asian and European leaders in Beijing last October, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso insisted that joint efforts were needed to get the world economy back on track. 'We swim together, or we sink together,' warned Mr Barroso.

The EU has also signed so-called 'strategic partnerships' with China, Japan and India, and is negotiating ambitious free trade agreements (FTAs) with Asean, India and South Korea.

But signing agreements is not enough. Injecting new momentum into EU-Asia relations will require both sides to focus less on process - the organisation of meetings, high-level visits, and issuing communiques - and more on exploring ways to enhance and reinforce the substance and content of their ties in a sustained manner.

This requires a long- overdue internal EU discussion on how best to deal with countries like China and India which - depending on the issue at stake - can, at the same time, be partners, competitors or even adversaries. It also demands a unified EU stance when dealing with Asia.

It is no secret that EU governments are seriously divided in their dealings with China - and that this inability to speak with one voice on key issues seriously erodes Europe's credibility and standing in Beijing.

In essence, while the Obama administration insists that the US has nothing to fear from an economically ascendant China, Europe does not appear to have made up its mind on whether China's rise will indeed be peaceful and whether Beijing is, and will be, partner or rival.

Crucially also, as EU high representative for foreign and security policy Javier Solana underlined recently, in an increasingly interdependent world, Europe must also get used to sharing power and accept that emerging actors will have their own ideas on reshaping global politics, monetary policies, business relations and institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

There are some encouraging signs. Earlier EU-China differences over Tibet which prompted Beijing to cancel a planned summit with the EU last December appear to be easing. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited several EU capitals earlier this year and the EU-China summit may now be held in Prague in May.

Also, although the negotiation of a new EU-Asean cooperation pact remains an elusive goal because of differences over Myanmar, the EU has stepped up its ties with Asean in recent weeks through the accreditation of EU ambassadors and the European Commission to Asean, and the nomination of a special EU adviser for Asean affairs in Jakarta.

These are good moves. But the challenge for Europe is to reinforce its engagement with China in a sustained manner, on several fronts, with an array of partners.

Europe's pro-Asia rhetoric can be strong; for the moment, however, the reality of Europe's strategy towards Asia is less impressive.