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President Barack Obama claps in his victory speech in Chicago. - Source: Reuters
Newly re-elected President Barack Obama will travel to Myanmar
later this month - the first such trip by a US president - as part
of a Southeast Asia tour that will also include stops in Thailand
and Cambodia, the White House confirmed today.
Obama plans to meet Myanmar's President Thein Sein and
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
on his visit to Myanmar, in the latest sign of Washington's support
for democratic reforms in the once-isolated country.
US confirmation of the November 17-20 trip to Southeast Asia
followed word from officials in the region of Obama's travel
plans.
The United States suspended sanctions on Myanmar this year in
recognition of the political and economic changes under way, and
many US companies are looking at starting operations in the
country, located between China and India, with abundant resources
and low-cost labour.
In November 2011, Hillary Clinton became the first US secretary
of state to visit in more than 50 years.
Obama has sought to consolidate ties and reinforce its influence
across Asia in what US officials have described as a policy "pivot"
toward the region as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.
Myanmar grew close to China during decades of isolation,
reinforced by Western sanctions over its poor human rights record,
but is now seeking to expand relations with the West.
Asian summit
Obama met Suu Kyi during her visit to the United States in
September. President Thein Sein was also there in September for the
General Assembly of the United Nations but the two men did not
meet.
Suu Kyi, who spent years in detention under the military as the
figurehead of the pro-democracy movement and was elected to
parliament in April, will be in India just before the mooted date
for Obama's visit to Myanmar.
"She is leaving for India on a week-long visit on November 12
but I am not sure when exactly she will be back," Nyan Win, an
official of her National League for Democracy party, told
Reuters.
Obama is coming to Southeast Asia to attend meetings in Cambodia
centred around an annual summit of the 10-country Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is usually extended to take
in leaders of partner countries.
Preliminary details for this year show the event will run from
November 15-20, and the Cambodian government has said Obama will be
in the capital, Phnom Penh, on November 18. The US administration
has not confirmed that.
The heads of government of China, Japan, Russia and other
countries are also expected in Cambodia for the meetings.
Thai media has said Obama may also visit Thailand, like Myanmar
an ASEAN member, while he is in Asia, but that could not be
confirmed.
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