Daniel Russel, the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, on April 3, 2014, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it was 'difficult to determine what China’s intentions might be, but Russia’s annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among US allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims'. He was quoted by 'The Irrawady' as saying: “The net effect is to put more pressure on China to demonstrate that it remains committed to the peaceful resolution of the problems.”
 
US President Obama is due to visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines from April 22, when he is expected to stress his commitment to a rebalancing of US strategic and economic focus towards the Asia-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China.