BANGKOK — For President Barack Obama, expanding US influence in Asia is more than
just countering China or opening up new markets to American businesses. It’s
also about building his legacy.
Fresh off re-election, Obama will
make a significant investment in that effort during a quick run through
Southeast Asia that begins Sunday. In addition to stops in Thailand and
Cambodia, the president will make a historic visit to Burma, where his
administration has led efforts to ease the once pariah nation out of international
isolation.
The trip marks Obama’s fourth
visit to Asia in as many years. He kicks off his schedule in Bangkok. With a
second term now guaranteed, aides say Obama will be a regular visitor to the
region over the next four years as well.
“Continuing to fill in our pivot
to Asia will be a critical part of the president’s second term and ultimately
his foreign policy legacy,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security
adviser.
The president’s motivations in
Asia are both personal and strategic.
Obama, who was born in Hawaii and
lived in Indonesia as a child, has called himself America’s first “Pacific
president.” The region gives him an opportunity to open up new markets for U.S.
companies, promote democracy and ease fears of China’s rise by boosting US
military presence in area.
The president, like many of his
predecessors, had hoped to cement his foreign policy legacy in the Middle East.
He visited two major allies in the region, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, on one of
his first overseas trips as president and attempted to revive peace talks
between Israel and the Palestinians.
But those talks stalled, and
fresh outbursts of violence between Israel and the Palestinians make the
prospects of a peace accord appear increasingly slim. The Obama-backed Arab
Spring democracy push has had mixed results so far, with Islamists taking power
in Egypt and progress in Libya tainted by the deadly attacks on the US
Consulate in Benghazi. Obama hasn’t been back to the region since 2009.
In Asia, however, Obama will be
viewed as something of an elder statesman when he returns less than two weeks
after winning re-election. The region is undergoing significant leadership
changes, most notably in China, where the Communist Party tapped new leaders
last week. Japan and South Korea will both hold new elections soon.
“Most of the leaders he’ll meet
with will not have a tenure as long as he will as president,” said Michael
Green, an Asia scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies. “So he’ll go into this in a very strong position.”
The centerpiece of Obama’s
whirlwind Asia tour is his visit to Burma. It will be the first time a U.S.
president has visited the former pariah state.
Burma has become something of a
pet project for Obama and his national security aides, who have cheered the
country’s significant strides toward democracy. Obama lifted some U.S.
penalties on Burma, appointed a permanent US ambassador and hosted democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House this year.
Many of the same strategic
motivations behind Obama’s larger focus on Asia are at play in Burma.
The country long has oriented
itself toward China, but the easing of sanctions gives American businesses a
chance to gain a foothold there. It’s also an opportunity for the Obama
administration to show other nations in the region, and elsewhere in the world,
that there are benefits to aligning with the US.
Still, there’s little denying
that history has been a draw for Obama’s team when it comes to its dealings
with Burma. That’s led to criticism from some human rights groups that say
Obama’s visit is premature given that the country continues to hold political
prisoners and has been unable to stem some ethnic violence.
“This trip risks being an
ill-timed presidential pat on the back for a regime that has looked the other
way as violence rages, destroying villages and communities just in the last few
weeks,” said Suzanne Nossel, the U.S.-based director of Amnesty International.
But the White House believes that
“if we want to promote human rights and promote American values, we intend to
do so through engagement,” Rhodes said Saturday as Obama flew to Asia.
He said it was important for
Obama to convey the message about “the type of action we’d like to see locked
in, in Burma as it relates to political reform, as it relates to economic
reform, and national reconciliation.”
Obama’s other stops in the region
also underscore the potential pitfalls of going all-in in Asia.
Thailand’s 2006 coup, which led
to the ouster of the prime minister, strained relations with the U.S. and
raised questions in Washington about the stability of its longtime regional
ally. Cambodia, where Obama’s visit also marks the first by a U.S. president,
has a dismal human rights record.
White House officials have
emphasized that Obama is visiting Cambodia because it is hosting the East Asia
Summit, an annual meeting the U.S. now attends. Aides say the president will
voice his human rights concerns during his meeting with Hun Sen, Cambodia’s
long-serving prime minister.
Still, human rights groups fear
Obama’s visit will be seen within Cambodia as an affirmation of the prime
minister and a sign to opposition groups that the U.S. stands with the
government, not with them.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton was also traveling to Thailand where she was going to join Obama.
Clinton then was to fly to Burma with Obama on Air Force One. It will be the
last joint trip for the president and his secretary of state, the once
presidential rival who went on to become Obama’s peripatetic chief diplomat.
Clinton is planning on leaving the administration.
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