U.S. President Barack Obama is back in Washington following a 10-day Asian tour that focused heavily on economics. The trip, which was marked with both successes and failures, was the president’s longest foreign trip to date. Mr. Obama told reporters on the flight home that Asia remains eager for American engagement and leadership.
The trip began in India, where Mr. Obama signed several multi-billion dollar trade deals. From there he traveled to Indonesia, where he spent four years of his childhood in the 1960s. He told university students in Jakarta that Indonesia is a part of him, and that the U.S. is not, and never will be at war with Islam.
Mr. Obama then traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the G20 summit. During the summit, the United States failed to secure a free trade agreement with South Korea, and did not persuade China to allow its currency to appreciate. The U.S. president also visited Japan for the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on Saturday.
On his flight back to Washington, Mr. Obama said he felt reasonably good about the chances of the Senate to ratify a nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia. He said the measure has received strong bipartisan support. On the domestic front, Mr. Obama said he will work on setting a bipartisan tone in Washington and to explain his decisions better following the Republican victories in the midterm U.S. congressional elections – Voanews
