Barack Obama speaks at Brisbane university during G20
US president Barack Obama speaks at the University of Queensland during the G20 summit on wide-ranging topics, including announcing a $US3 billion contribution to an international fund to help...
By: ABC News (Australia)
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Barack Obama speaks at Brisbane university during G20 - Video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- U.S. President Obama opened his appearance at the G20 summit of world leaders in Australia with a speech that had to make Beijing think.
The United States is a big part of the power balance in Asia and plans to throw more of its weight onto the scale, the president told a crowd at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
"We will continue to deepen our engagement using every element of American power -- diplomacy, military, economic, development, the power of our values and ideals," he said.
And the United States will band together with nations in the region. It will work toward giving them more heft -- so that big nations do not "bully the small," Obama said.
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Obama: U.S. is major player in Asia
President Barack Obama, left, and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi leave from a news conference at her residence Friday in Yangon, Myanmar. "We may view things differently from time to time, but that will in no way affect our relationship," said Suu Kyi, who embraced Obama during the news conference. (Mandel Ngan, AFP)
BRISBANE, Australia President Barack Obama is getting his first glimpse of life as a lame-duck president traveling overseas. And so far, he has reason to like what he sees. Obama arrived in the Asia-Pacific region weakened by a cascade of crises that have put him on the defensive at home, and politically damaged by Democrats' thrashing in last week's midterm elections. But during stops in China and Myanmar, there were few overt signs that Obama's troubles had followed him abroad.
Instead, Obama secured unexpected agreements with China on climate change, military cooperation and trade. And in Myanmar on Friday, Obama received a full-throated endorsement of his commitment to the country's democratization from revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was enthusiastically greeted by young people at a town hall in the bustling commercial capital of Yangon.
"You're always popular in somebody else's country," Obama told the cheering youths. "When you're in your own country, everybody is complaining."
For a beleaguered White House, the trip has been a welcome relief from criticism and crisis in Washington, as well as a reminder of the opportunities that could exist in Obama's final two years in office.
In turning overseas so quickly after the midterms, Obama is following a path well-trodden by his predecessors. But he has signaled in the week and a half since the midterm elections that he doesn't intend to quietly jet off to overseas capitals and immerse himself in foreign affairs.
He has jumped into the fray over Net neutrality by unveiling his plan for a "free and open" Internet, and White House officials are putting final touches on a package of immigration executive orders that have Republicans outraged.
Still, Obama this week has clearly relished being able to focus on one of his foreign policy priorities: an expansion of U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, which he hopes becomes a central part of his legacy.
In Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, leaders thanked Obama for being a willing partner as the country emerges from a half-century of military rule. And Suu Kyi, the country's democracy icon, put to rest rumors of a rift with Obama, her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Obama did little to quell critics of his Myanmar policy who say his desire to make the country's democratization part of his legacy has clouded his ability to clearly see the shortcomings of that process. While he was blunt in his calls for Myanmar to enact constitutional reforms and end persecution of minorities, he outlined few consequences if those steps don't occur.
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Obama gets respite on trip to China, Myanmar, Australia
Raw: Obama Arrives in Myanmar
President Barack Obama arrived Wednesday night in Myanmar #39;s capital, his second stop on an eight-day Asia-Pacific swing that opened in China and ends later this week in Australia. (Nov. 12)...
By: Associated Press
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Raw: Obama Arrives in Myanmar - Video
Congress Rising: Obama, Iraq, Syria and the Use of Force
Thirteen years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States is unambiguously at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). But when did Congress declare this new...
By: WoodrowWilsonCenter
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Congress Rising: Obama, Iraq, Syria and the Use of Force - Video