Obama Back in U.S. after Southeast Asia Trip
President Barack Obama landed back on U.S. soil early Wednesday after his landmark visit to Myanmar and a three-day tour of Southeast Asia in which he attended a regional summit.
The president arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, near the U.S. capital, at 12:30 am (5:30 GMT), said a reporter on Air Force One, and then made the short flight back to the White House on his Marine One helicopter.
The Asia trip was Obama's first foreign tour since being re-elected two weeks ago. He met Myanmar's feted democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, becoming the first serving U.S. president to visit the country formerly known as Burma, and praised its fledgling reform moves after decades of military rule.
And on Tuesday at the 18-nation East Asia Summit in Cambodia a senior Obama aide said the president raised concerns about China's sweeping claims to the South China Sea, which have rattled Southeast Asian countries.
Obama's visit to Cambodia was the final leg of a three-nation trip -- he visited the Thai capital Bangkok on Sunday -- aimed at deepening U.S. influence in Southeast Asia and serving as a counter-balance to China's rising power in the region.
Source: Agence France Presse
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