Obama to set aside decades of uneasy ties with Malaysian visit
As first US president to visit since 1966, he aims to set aside tensions, play up its democracy and moderation and seek common cause on China
Barack Obama will this weekend become the first US president in nearly 50 years to visit Malaysia, where he will seek to put decades of uneasy bilateral relations behind him as both nations cast wary eyes on a rising China.
Mindful of America's image problem in the Islamic world, Obama is expected to tout the US friendship with the thriving moderate Muslim nation.
Malaysia is also an important partner in the US "rebalance" of its strategic attention to Asia, where concern is rising over China's territorial assertiveness.
Obama will "highlight the growing strategic and economic relationship" with Malaysia and its "credentials as a moderate, Muslim-majority state and emerging democracy", said Joshua Kurlantzick, a fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, meanwhile, will seek to capitalise on Obama's expected praise to counter flagging voter support and global criticism over the handling of the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Obama was five years old the last time a serving US leader visited Malaysia. Lyndon Johnson went in 1966 to rally support for the US war in Vietnam.