President Barack Obama flexed US power in Asia on Sunday, launching a regional tour that will make history when he lands in Myanmar to encourage its leaders to quicken a startling political reform drive.
Obama touched down in Air Force One in Bangkok, sending a message that relationships like the six-decades-old treaty alliance with Thailand will form the bedrock of US diplomacy as the region warily eyes a rising China.
He will become the first sitting US president to visit formerly isolated Myanmar, on Monday, and will laud President Thein Sein for ending a dark era of junta rule, but also prod him to go much further towards genuine democracy.
Then, in a stark illustration of how far Myanmar has come, the US leader will stand side-by-side with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside villa where his fellow Nobel laureate languished for years under house arrest.
Obama will welcome “truly historic” progress in Myanmar, but underscore that more work needs to be done to ensure a full transition to civilian rule, democracy, and national reconciliation, said Ben Rhodes, a deputy US national security advisor.
Later Monday, Obama will fly to Cambodia, and a likely tense encounter over human rights with Prime Minister Hun Sen, ahead of the East Asia Summit, the main institutional focus of his pivot of US foreign policy to the region.
