Should the U.S. Feel Confident--As Asia and Europe Join Hands?

Tomorrow is the Asia-Europe Summit Meeting in Beijing. All 27 states of the EU are represented, along with the European Commission; ASEAN and all its member states are represented, along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and Mongolia. Germany's Merkel, France's Sarkozy, Japan's Aso, India's Singh, Korea's Lee, Italy's Berlusconi and Poland's Tusk are all attending.

China felt it necessary, via Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, to stress "there wasn't any anti-U.S. sentiment within ASEM" since the U.S. has no representation at this meeting. Neither, for that matter, does Russia (neither a European nor an Asian country by the ASEM criteria? Is this tacit recognition that there does exist a distinct geographic, geopolitical and geoeconomic space called "Eurasia"?)

But is Washington's absence from deliberations that certainly will almost entirely be focused on the financial crisis a problem? It seems unlikely that solutions are going to be agreed upon and that the key European and Asian countries are then going to bypass the United States.

And despite problems at home, the fall in oil prices (hitting the "axis of oil" in the pocketbook) does seem to be benefiting the U.S. If America has suffered losses, Washington's attitude seems to be that no one else in the world is prepared to overtake the U.S. or rise at its expense.

So the feeling is, let them meet in Beijing, and then everyone will come to Washington in time for the U.S.-led solution.