Tejinder Singh – AHN News Correspondent
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Nov. 9 will travel to three other democracies Indonesia, Korea and Japan after finishing his trip to India and with his return trip to Washington scheduled for Nov. 14.
After attending a bilateral meeting with President Yudhoyono in Jakarta and an official dinner on the first day Nov. 9 in Indonesia, President Obama will begin his next day “by laying a wreath at the Heroes Cemetery in Jakarta,” Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told journalists on Thursday.
“From there he (President Obama) will go on and pay a visit to the Istiqlal Mosque, which is the largest mosque in Indonesia — again, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country,” added Rhodes.
Later the president is scheduled to speak at a yet undecided location “about some of the themes of democracy and development and our outreach to Muslim communities around the world, while also speaking of Indonesia’s pluralism and tolerance as well,” Rhodes said.
President Obama will not only speak about Indonesia’s broad religious diversity, but also address issues of “importance of Indonesia to him, personally, having lived there for several years in Jakarta as a boy,” said the official.
The night of Nov.10 will be spent in Seoul, South Korea as the entourage flies in there with the 11th, Veterans Day, kicking off with the president “speaking to U.S. troops at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul,” said Rhodes.
President Obama is expected to have his “seventh” bilateral meeting with “President Hu Jintao of China,” Rhodes noted, saying that the G20 agenda takes over from there.
There are total four press conferences President Obama is going to hold on this trip, starting “one with Prime Minister Singh, one with President Yudhoyono, one with President Lee, and then the concluding G20 conference,” Rhodes announced.
With that concluding press conference, the president will travel to Yokohama, Japan. “On Nov. 13, the President will begin the day by giving remarks to the CEO business summit that is attached to the APEC meetings,” noted Rhodes.
In addition to bilateral with Japanese leaders, President Obama will have “a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Gillard of Australia,” the official said, adding that the following day there might be “a bilateral meeting with President Medvedev of Russia.
Finding time from the tight APEC schedule during those days, President Obama will pay a visit to the great Buddha statue that is nearby in Yokohama,” the official said, adding, “This is one of the marvels of Japanese culture, and the President had visited this particular Buddha statue as a child actually when he visited Japan, so he is very much looking forward to this opportunity to pay a return visit.”
Outlining the objectives for the Asian trip, Rhodes told journalists, “We see this very much in the context of the focus we put on Asia as a region of the world with the most dynamic and growing markets that are going to be fundamental to our export initiative of doubling exports in the world, but also fundamental to a number of political and security concerns that will a subject of the President’s travel.”
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