President Obama has invited several Asian leaders to Washington for state visits as he pursues a U.S. pivot to Asia, National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced Friday.
Rice, speaking at the Brookings Institution about Obama’s national security strategy released Friday, said the White House has invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to Washington for visits this year.
“The Asia-Pacific rebalance is deepening long-term relationships and strengthening new partnerships,” Rice said.
The U.S. relationship with China, she said, is “one of defining relationships of the 21st century,” and building ties to emerging powers such as India is also important for the country to remain competitive in the global trade market.
Throughout his time in office, Obama has long sought to refocus U.S. resources and attention on Asia, a rapidly expanding market for U.S. trade and goods, and away from the turmoil in the Middle East.
The Arab Spring and its fallout, al Qaeda’s reconstitution in the Arabian Peninsula, Syria’s bloody civil war and the rise of the Islamic State have prevented a full shift away from the Middle East and Arab world, but Rice made clear that Obama is still pursuing a shift to Asia.
While the U.S. must remain focused on turmoil in the Middle East and other hot spots, Rice argued that “we have to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
“We have to focus on regions like the Middle East and Europe, but at the same time we can’t neglect and leave untapped areas in parts of the world” that have garnered less attention, she said.
