Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Among the many hands that Barack Obama will likely shake on his inaugural trip to Asia as U.S. President will be that of a soft-spoken general who happens to represent one of the world's most repressive regimes. Obama's planned joint appearance on Nov. 15 with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations' confab on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore, will mark the first time since the era of Lyndon B. Johnson that an American President has spent any face-time with a member of the Burmese...
...change in policy also reflects the political and economic reality in Asia. While the U.S. and European Union have stayed away, other countries have poured money into Burma - most notably its neighbors China, Thailand and India, who are hungry for the country's plentiful natural resources. The sting of western sanctions has been lessened by such investment forays, leaving the Burmese military brass with plenty of money to prop up their regime. (See pictures of what lies behind the discontent in Burma...
Part of the problem, too, is the distance with which the U.S. held ASEAN in recent years. While China, India, Australia and other regional economies have been assiduously wooing Southeast Asia by signing free-trade agreements with the bloc, the U.S., particularly under the presidency of George W. Bush, kept ASEAN at arm's length. One reason was Burma's accession to ASEAN in 1997, which put the U.S. in a tough spot. Washington had been tightening sanctions on the Burmese junta because of its dismal human-rights record. By participating in ASEAN confabs, Bush's State Department worried that...
...department is a key player on policy in this part of the world. That policy weight comes from Steinberg, a China expert and former Deputy National Security Adviser who is staying in Washington during the trip. He has been largely responsible for designing the Administration's approach to Asia, which is to focus on reassuring both long-term allies and China that the U.S. seeks increased cooperation in areas of shared interest. Kurt Campbell, a centrist Clinton White House and Pentagon official, will have the point position when it comes to briefing the President on upcoming meetings and issues during...
...economic affairs, Obama leans on Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary. Geithner has personal history in Asia, having studied China and Japan in college and graduate school before shifting to economics, eventually rising to become Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in Clinton's second term. As the Bush Administration did throughout the dollar's slide, Geithner recently declared the importance of a strong dollar, even as it has continued to fall. Asian countries have huge dollar reserves and are skittish about the future of their holdings. Obama will attempt to bolster their belief in the currency's stability...