President Obama deflected claims that his week-long trip to Asia this week was an “Asian distraction” to draw attention away from issues such as the fight against the Islamic State, the recent terror attacks in Paris and the debate on whether the U.S. should accept Syrian refugees escaping the dangers of a civil war.
Speaking during a news conference Sunday at the Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Obama rejected the premise that Asia was “disconnected” from events going on elsewhere in the world.
“I could not disagree more. This region is not a distraction from the world’s central challenges, like terrorism,” he said. “The Asia Pacific is absolutely critical to promoting security, prosperity and human dignity around the world. That’s why I’ve devoted so much of my foreign policy to deepening America’s engagement with this region. And I’m pleased that on this trip we made progress across the board.”
Countries in the Asia Pacific, such as Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand are a part of the coalition to fight the Islamic State, Obama said to reporters, which he said “will not relent” in its fight against the terrorist organization.
“We will not accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theaters and hotels are the new normal — or that we are powerless to stop them,” he said. “After all, that’s precisely what terrorists like ISIL want, because, ultimately, that’s the only way that they can win.”
“That’s the very nature of terrorism — they can’t beat us on the battlefield,” Obama added, “so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, into changing our patterns of behavior, into panicking, into abandoning our allies and partners, into retreating from the world. And as president, I will not let that happen.”
The president also called on the media to help out in the fight against terrorism. He said the press needs to “maintain perspective” and “not empower in any way these terrorist organizations or elevate them in ways that make it easier for them to recruit or make them stronger.”
“They’re a bunch of killers with good social media,” Obama continued. “And they are dangerous, and they’ve caused great hardship to people. But the overwhelming majority of people who go about their business every day, the Americans who are building things, and making things, and teaching, and saving lives as firefighters and as police officers — they’re stronger. Our way of life is stronger. We have more to offer — we represent 99.9 percent of humanity. And that’s why we should be confident that we’ll win.”
The president is on the last leg of a week-long trip to Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia, which included a meeting of G-20 minister and summits for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and East Asian and Association of Southeast Asian Nations to tout his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. However, he also made time to speak about terrorism in the aftermath of an attack Friday at a hotel in Mali that left at least 22 dead, including one America.
“With allies and partners, the United States will be relentless against those who target our citizens,” he said at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Malaysia on Saturday.
