WASHINGTON - President Obama is darting off to Southeast Asia to showcase a foreign-policy achievement and reinforce the U.S. role as a counterweight to China.
Obama leaves today for a four-day trip to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, his first trip abroad since June and his fourth to Asia, where he has been eager to expand the U.S. footprint. It's a brief break from dicey fiscal negotiations and a national security sex scandal that are competing with the glow of his re-election.
Freed from the constraints of campaigning, Obama is quickly re-establishing his foreign-policy credentials by being the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, which was internationally shunned for decades and is now hailed for its steps toward democratization.
Obama is also attending the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, eager to secure the U.S.'s place as a major player in a region that long has operated under China's influence. The trip underscores Obama's goal of establishing the United States as an Asian-Pacific power, a world view defined by 21st-century geopolitics but also by Obama's personal identity as America's first Pacific president. Obama was born in Hawaii.
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The White House sees the trip in historic terms, in no small part because of the breakthrough with Myanmar, but also because of its broader strategic significance.
"Continuing to fill in our pivot to Asia will be a critical part of this president's second term and ultimately his foreign policy legacy," said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.
In choosing this time to travel - the East Asia Summit was scheduled some time ago - Obama is taking advantage of his electoral success, and his international counterparts are bound to be in a congratulatory mood.
During the brief stop Monday in Myanmar, Obama will meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, and deliver an address in which he will call for continued political reforms in the country.
Myanmar's democratization has led to rare bipartisanship in the U.S. capital. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has had a longstanding interest in the Asian country, commended Obama for scheduling the trip.
"I think it's an important step for him to take," McConnell said.
In Cambodia, also a first visit for a sitting U.S. president, Obama will participate in the East Asia Summit, which includes the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and eight other nations: the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
Obama will hold separate one-on-one meetings with outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
