Obama attempts to re-engage U.S. ties with Asia
Associated Press
President Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at the prime minister’s residence in Tokyo Friday.
Associated Press
Published: November 13, 2009
Updated: November 13, 2009
TOKYO — President Barack Obama declared Saturday that an era of American disengagement in the globe’s fastest-growing region is over and warned that the U.S. and its Asian partners “will not be cowed” by North Korea’s continued defiance over its nuclear weapons and other provocations.
“It should be clear where that path leads,” Obama said. “We will continue to send a clear message through our actions, and not just our words: North Korea’s refusal to meet its international obligations will lead only to less security, not more.”
Calling for greater U.S. engagement in Asia, Obama said Americans should not fear a robust China, but he cautioned that all nations must respect human rights, including religious freedoms.
“We welcome China’s efforts to play a greater role on the world stage, a role in which their growing economy is joined by growing responsibility,” Obama said.
Obama offered an incentive for North Korea to abandon the nuclear weapons it is believed to already have and the production program it continues in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. He outlined a possible future of economic opportunity and greater global greater security and respect. “This respect cannot be earned through belligerence,” he said.
More broadly, the president’s speech before 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring downtown Tokyo concert hall was intended to showcase a United States that, under Obama’s leadership, seeks deeper and more equal engagement in Asia. It was the fifth major foreign address of Obama’s 10-month presidency, this one geared toward setting a new tone for the sometimes-rocky U.S. relationship with the region.
Acknowledging Asia’s growing power and perception of America’s parallel decline here, Obama aides and the president himself had said the chief aim for his eight-day trip through Asia wasn’t so much to bring home specific “deliverables” but to convincingly press the point that the U.S. very much is in the Asian game.
Obama called himself “America’s first Pacific president.”
In his scene-setting speech of those travels, Obama promised that Washington would work hard to strengthen already established alliances in Asia, such as with Japan and South Korea, build on newer ones with nations like China and Indonesia and increase its participation with a burgeoning alphabet soup of Asian multilateral organizations. The involvement, the president said, is not just academic — but crucial to the issues “that matter most to our people,” such as jobs, a cleaner environment and preventing dangerous weapons proliferation.
“I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region, because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home,” he said. “The fortunes of America and the Asia Pacific have become more closely linked than ever before.”
Obama also sounded free-trade notes sure to be welcome in Asia.
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Reader Reactions
I like reading these post on this site.They show me people with different opinions about how this country should be ran.They show the advanced education levels of said individual’s posting.WITH ALL OF THE PEOPLE WITH Ph.Ds on this site.I find it very amusing the only professional papers they have published are the ones ONLY ON THIS SITE.KINDA MAKES YOU WONDER WHERE THE BRAINS ARE IN THIS STATE.STAND UP GIVE YOUR BRAINS A REST.
mpb3
I looked in the sky and it was void, you were not there. You are not the bright star you think you are! I hate that your students are subject to your biased, liberal, and propagated views!
Like that which was writen earlier, you would make a good North Korean!
mpb3, since we are getting along so nicely I’d like to point out that yes my comment used American Thinker as a source, but you missed the whole point when you ignored the fact that the quote I used is from a man who has lived in Japan, who is very well educated even by the same school that the dear leader attended on God only knows whose dime, and that he taught people the correct way to bow when greeting the Japanese people. Therefore, the source of the quote is quite secondary to the information provided and is as valid as any link you have provided with a disclaimer. One cannot dispute the qualifications of an individual simply by which side of the political spectrum his loyalties lie, nor by the venue he uses to distribute his knowledge. I think I’ll trust you in your statement below. I do have better things to do than look up all of your comments on this site.
For the record dear Genie, I have never quoted the Huffington Post as a source. I have once or twice posted a link and said that while biased, that it was an interesting argument. Argument and sources are two different things. (I teach that to my high school students when we do our persuasive writing unit.)
As for my sources, I always try to use unbiased, mainstream, or non-partisan sources.
I challenge you to find a post where I have used Huffington’s blog as a source.
Oh, and there is so little humor left in this country, I am so happy I can still make you laugh.
God bless you Genie, and all the people of the world, of all religions, colors, creeds, and nationalities!
Criminal-in-Chief….If the shoe fits, wear it! Sounds just like Obama..
This thread has turned quite hillarious…If you are a conservative, then you must only listen to FOXnews or HuffPo! LMBO…
Let’s see, there are how many major networks or propaganda outlets?...Looks like the liberals have the conservatives out numbered by far on this one! I suppose the major liberal propaganda networks are non-biased? yeah right! They tore Sarah Palin and HER FAMILY to shreds…have they ever did that to a liberal? NO!
americangenie, I respect your post, you seem as though you use your God given common sense for meaningfull purposes.
mpb3, honestly, I am glad you have a job. I have several people appraoch me every week wanting a job, and I am sorry, I can’t help them…it’s the economy! Where does my income come from you asked? By far from people who work non-government funded jobs…The other’s well they had good wisdom to work and save, so they use the money they saved plus the taxes they entrusted to the federal government for Social Security. Our government, who by the way, has borrowed/stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund for decades now has had to find new sources of income ie China & Rich Arab countries. No wonder Soc. Sec. is broke!
Let me say this too, I have written several post that knock not only Obama but both the Bush’s & Clinton. It just so happens that Obama is the biggest Bafoon by far!
I do realize our country’s problems are complex. However, it makes no sense to me that we borrow from countries like China and then give the money to countries like North Korea to appease the communist and thier threats of war. North Korea has Washington wrapped around it’s finger. All the NK’s have to do is have a few missle test or some other threat and our government cow tows to those idiots. But who is really the Idiots…OUR Government, more so US, because we never held our government accountable! Just the same, it makes no common sense that our government would borrow billions & trillians, knowing they can’t repay it, and then give it in the name of stimulas programs where most of the money winds up in the hands of special interest groups like ACORN or Trial Lawyers. The fleecing of America did not begin ten months ago, it began several decades ago, and we the people just turned our eyes and ears away and let it continue.
I can hear that (fat)lady who sings at the end of ballgames tunning her voice to sing when it’s all over and done with for this country as we have known it! If you happen to be like myself, 4 children, a wife and three grandchildren, it strikes fear in my heart of what the future generations are going to have to go through. They will be slaves to the “state”...kinda like ordinary people in China and North Korea are now!
Enjoy your afternoon everyone!
Ok. I now have tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. I thought the criminal in chief made a fool of himself. mpb3, your comments on this thread are so weak & pathetic. It’s what happens when one doesn’t have a cogent thought in their head before they begin typing.
Oh my goodness! Thank you! I haven’t laughed so hard in years.
tyates & good citizen, thank you both for your comments & God bless you both.
God bless you too, mpb3.
“Oh back to insulting me again, Genie. I’m so honored! BTW, do you think it might be possible for you to quote something from a non-biased source some time? People might respect your opinions more.“
This from the woman who uses HuffPo as a source. Thanks for the uproarious laughter, dear. I needed that.
Me a RADICAL? I don’t support SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM, Radical Islamic Terror…I don’t support the Idea of a Full Blown entitlement nanny state…
Look in the mirror, you might see the face of an ANTI-American RADICAL!
mpb3
you are the epitome of a SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST…why don’t you move to North Korea…they love your way of thinking!
tyates, Genie, and “Good Citizen”—I fear that no matter what our good President does, you radicals will hate him and declare him all kinds of evil things. Good luck with that!
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