A Change of Guard

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Friday 9 November 2012

Obama to visit Myanmar confirmed

  • Obama to visit Myanmar confirmed  (Source: Reuters)
    President Barack Obama claps in his victory speech in Chicago. - Source: Reuters
Published: Thursday November 08, 2012 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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