() TOKYO — Trying to reassure allies and rivals, President Barack Obama billed himself Saturday as "America’s first Pacific president," promising the nations of Asia "a new era of engagement with the world based on mutual interests and mutual respect." Full Story »
Posted by Samuel W. Velsor IV - via The Politico (Politics)
In a slap at President George W. Bush, Obama spoke of the importance of “multilateral organizations [that] can advance the security and prosperity of this region.” “I know that the United States has been disengaged from these organizations in recent years. So let me be clear: those days have passed,” Obama said during the first major address of a four-country Far East swing, which will continue from Japan to Singapore, China and South Korea. “As an Asia Pacific nation, the United States expects to be involved in the discussions that shape the future of this region, and to participate fully in appropriate organizations as they are established and evolve,” Obama said.
“There must be no doubt,” he said. “As America’s first Pacific president, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world.”
This quote for sure sums up the new direction that our President is taking us.
The President is very serious about re-engaging Japan and Asia as a whole into the fold of American politics and its foreign policy - which was nill under Bush.