Obama heads to Asia fresh from poll drubbing
10 Nov 2014 4:36 AM IST
Still smarting from his election night mauling, President Barack Obama heads this weekend to China seeking to reassure Asian nations of America’s commitment to its much-vaunted pivot to the region.
Assailed on all sides by global crises, from Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria to the conflict in Ukraine and the spread of Ebola, Obama will aim to dispel fears that Washington’s attention is increasingly diverted away from Asian issues.
As well as attending a two-day summit of Asian and Pacific leaders which opens Monday in Beijing, Obama will also hold separate talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He will then travel to Myanmar to attend the East Asia Summit on the sidelines of a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the capital Naypyidaw, before heading for G20 talks in Brisbane, Australia.
‘This is going to be a tough trip for the president,’ predicted Ernest Bower, a senior Asia advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
‘I think when Southeast Asia looks at this trip and him coming, they’re wondering, you know, who is Barack Obama now after the midterm elections?’ Bower said.
‘They’ll be trying to discern whether he has the commitment and political capability, political capital to follow through on earlier commitments.’
Obama’s Democrats lost heavily to Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as his political rivals took the driver’s seat in Congress, wresting back control of the Senate and holding onto the House of Representatives.
Global allies are now anxiously watching to see if Obama will be able to carry out any of his foreign agenda, or whether he will be hamstrung by a combative Congress with very different ideas on America’s future direction.
Just days before his arrival, China’s state-run media decried Obama’s leadership. ‘Obama always utters, ‘Yes, we can,’ which led to the high expectations people had for him,’ wrote the Global Times, which has close ties to China’s ruling Communist Party.
‘But he has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters... US society has grown tired of his banality.’ But this trip will be a chance for Obama to re-engage with Asia after he was forced to skip the 2013 talks, held in Bali, due to a looming budget crisis.
Assailed on all sides by global crises, from Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria to the conflict in Ukraine and the spread of Ebola, Obama will aim to dispel fears that Washington’s attention is increasingly diverted away from Asian issues.
As well as attending a two-day summit of Asian and Pacific leaders which opens Monday in Beijing, Obama will also hold separate talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He will then travel to Myanmar to attend the East Asia Summit on the sidelines of a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the capital Naypyidaw, before heading for G20 talks in Brisbane, Australia.
‘This is going to be a tough trip for the president,’ predicted Ernest Bower, a senior Asia advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
‘I think when Southeast Asia looks at this trip and him coming, they’re wondering, you know, who is Barack Obama now after the midterm elections?’ Bower said.
‘They’ll be trying to discern whether he has the commitment and political capability, political capital to follow through on earlier commitments.’
Obama’s Democrats lost heavily to Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as his political rivals took the driver’s seat in Congress, wresting back control of the Senate and holding onto the House of Representatives.
Global allies are now anxiously watching to see if Obama will be able to carry out any of his foreign agenda, or whether he will be hamstrung by a combative Congress with very different ideas on America’s future direction.
Just days before his arrival, China’s state-run media decried Obama’s leadership. ‘Obama always utters, ‘Yes, we can,’ which led to the high expectations people had for him,’ wrote the Global Times, which has close ties to China’s ruling Communist Party.
‘But he has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters... US society has grown tired of his banality.’ But this trip will be a chance for Obama to re-engage with Asia after he was forced to skip the 2013 talks, held in Bali, due to a looming budget crisis.
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