Obama arrives in Cambodia for Asean summit

Making history twice within hours, President Barack Obama on Monday became the first US president to set foot in Cambodia, a country once known for its Khmer Rouge “killing fields.” He left behind flag-waving crowds on the streets of Myanmar, the once internationally shunned nation now showing democratic promise.

Unlike the visit to Myanmar, where Obama seemed to revel in that nation’s new hope, the White House has made clear that Obama is only in Cambodia to attend an East Asia Summit and said the visit should not be seen as an endorsement of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the government he has led since the 1980s.

Indeed, Obama’s arrival in Cambodia lacked the euphoria of his greeting in Yangon, Myanmar, where tens of thousands of people lined city streets to cheer the first American president to visit a country that had long been isolated from the West. “You gave us hope,” Obama declared in Yangon.

In Phnom Penh, the sun was already setting by the time Air Force One landed. Small clusters of Cambodians gathered in the streets to watch the motorcade pass, but there was none of the outpouring that greeted Obama in Myanmar.

Speaking to a national audience from the University of Yangon, Obama offered a “hand of friendship” and a lasting US commitment, yet a warning as well. He said the new civilian government must nurture democracy or watch it, and US support, disappear.

The visit to Myanmar was the centrepiece of a four-day trip to Southeast Asia that began in Bangkok and will end on Tuesday in Cambodia, where Obama will visit with Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asia leaders in addition to attending the East Asia Summit.