Obama to travel to China, Burma and Australia in November

By First Post

August 28, 2014

Washington: US President Barack Obama will visit China, Burma and Australia in November as part of his administration's Asia Pacific re-balance strategy to attend key regional summits and meet G-20 leaders, a senior US official said.

In Beijing, Obama will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Summit on November 10 and 11, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been invited by the Chinese President.

Obama would extend his stay in Beijing for a day on November 12 before travelling to Burma to attend the East Asia Summit. From Burma, the US President would head to Brisbane in Australia for the G-20 summit on November 15 and 16 which would also be attended by Modi.

Robert Wang, Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) told foreign journalists that November Summit in Beijing would focus on trade, economy and growth. "The first pillar is the trade and investment pillar, and then the second one is what the Chinese call the innovation, reform, and growth pillar. But in general, those are the set of issues that are related to how we sustain economic growth in the region," he said on Wednesday, adding that the third pillar is the connectivity pillar.

"Essentially, there we have a whole set of issues related to trying to increase the flow of people and goods throughout the APEC economy, so including cross-border education, physical infrastructure, regulatory convergence, things of that nature," he said.