Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press, Bangkok, Thailand | World | Sun, November 18 2012, 4: 46 PM
President Barack Obama on Sunday launched a three-day Southeast Asia tour, alliances with countries like Thailand hailing as cornerstones of the Administration deeper involvement in the Asia-Pacific region.
While in Asia, but Obama will be sharing his attention by supervision of the escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip Hamas ruled. Obama is in regular contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with Egyptian and Turkish leaders who might hold sway with the Hamas leaders.
Obama landed in Bangkok Sunday afternoon, greeted by 40 military guards who flanked both sides of a red carpet.
His schedule is packed with cultural attractions, a Royal audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a personal meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a joint press conference and an official dinner.
He will also visit Myanmar and Cambodia in his first trip abroad since winning a second term.
The visit to Thailand, less than 18 hours long, is a gesture of friendship to a long-term partner and major non-NATO ally.
Still, the two countries have faced tribes, most recently after the military coup of 2006, which Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed and Obama the visit provides an opportunity to adapt and broadening the relationship.
"It was very important for us to be a signal for the area that allies will remain as the basis of our approach" to the creation of a more prominent presence in Asia, Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with the president aboard Air Force One.
Obama also wants to open new markets for u.s. companies; the United States is Thailand's third largest trading partner, behind China and Japan. Becoming a counterweight to China in the region is a cornerstone of the so-called pivot of Obama for the Asia-Pacific region.
The Obama trip comes on the heels of meetings in Thailand between defence Minister Leon Panetta and his Thai counterparts on security and military cooperation on topics ranging from the fight against the spread of weapons to disaster relief to combating piracy.
A reference to the coup of 2006, Obama said the national security adviser, Tom Donilon, in a speech for the trip last week that Obama would build on the outreach to strengthen the relationship and Panetta "support the continued peaceful restoration of the democratic order after a turbulent period."
Obama to visit the Royal Monastery of Wat Pho, a cultural must-see in Bangkok, before paying a courtesy visit to ailing 86-year-old, USA born King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his hospital quarters. The King, the longest serving living monarch, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and studied in Europe.
The centerpiece of the Asia trip comes Monday when Obama travels to Myanmar, the once reclusive and autocratic state that establishing democratic measures has begun. Obama has eased sanctions on the country, also known as Burma, and his visit will be the first there by a meeting of the president of the USA.
Obama aides not only see Myanmar as a success story but also as a signal to other countries that the United States will reward democratic behaviour.
"If Burma can continue to succeed in a democratic transition, then that can be potentially a powerful message regional and all over the world ... that if countries to take the right decisions, we must be with incentives," said Rhodes.
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