A senior US official will today head out on a trip through Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, part of the Obama administration’s renewed focus on Southeast Asia.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell will also travel to Japan, becoming the latest senior official to visit the close US ally to smooth out relations with Tokyo’s left-leaning government.
Campbell’s trip, which conclude in March 17, will include an address at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and talks in Jakarta with ASEAN envoys, the US State Department said.
The travels come ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama later this month to Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood, and Australia.
Obama administration officials have pledged to invest time in Southeast Asia, criticizing former US president George W. Bush’s team for being too busy with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to nurture ties in the emerging ASEAN region.
“It’s absolutely essential that the US convey to the key players in the Asian-Pacific region that we are here to stay and that we’re going to play a dynamic and continuing role,” Campbell told lawmakers on Wednesday.
In his congressional testimony, Campbell said he would speak with communist Laos about ways to improve relations and about the clean-up of millions of leftover US bombs in the country.
He also called for improvement in human rights from Vietnam and Myanmar, which will not figure on his upcoming trip.
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