Looks like our Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign really is working: US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Kuala Lumpur in April, as part of a four-stop official tour of East Asia.
Apart from Malaysia, Obama will also be visiting Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.
The US president’s stops in KL and Manila are intended to make up for his cancelled trips to the cities last October, when he opted to stay behind in Washington to deal with domestic political issues surrounding the US debt ceiling and federal government shutdown.
This time around, the focus of Obama’s visits is expected to be to reaffirm the United States’ strategic presence in the region, especially following recent moves by China to declare an “air defence identification zone” in the East China Sea.
Indeed, one glaring omission from the president’s itinerary in April is a stop in Beijing, although Obama will be heading to China, Ausrtalia and Myanmar later this year for a string of regional summits.
Obama is also expected to push for more negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) which has caused some grumbling from many sectors of Malaysian society over the restrictions it could potentially impose on local commerce and domestive policy moving forward.
Photo: The US Army / Flickr
Source: Channel News Asia
