Thursday, November 12, 2009

Obama seeks to reassure Asia allies

There seems to be a "first" to everything that President Barack Obama is, or does.

The first black leader of the US is also the first American president who has lived in Asia as a child - the first president with an "Asia-Pacific orientation", as US officials put it.

President Obama will try to capitalise on this during his week-long trip to the region.

He wants to build on and improve crucial relationships with allies and rivals across the Pacific.

He will be tackling a broad range of issues - some of them thorny, like global trade, China's currency and US debt, and how to deal with countries like North Korea and Burma, not to mention climate change.

He will also be the first US president to attend a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore.READ MORE

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