President Barack Obama is heading to Asia on his first foreign trip since winning re-election. Source: AAP
US President Barack Obama is due in Asia to intensify an American foreign policy pivot towards the fast-rising region on his first overseas trip since re-election.
Obama is due to arrive in Thailand on Sunday on a trip that will include a landmark visit to Myanmar.
He will be the first sitting US president to set foot in the long-time pariah, reflecting a dramatic thaw in relations brought about by sweeping political changes under a new reformist government.
Obama, who has dubbed himself America's first "Pacific president", will first touch down in Thailand, then make a one-day stop in Myanmar on Monday, before joining regional leaders in Cambodia for the East Asia Summit.
He is making his fifth visit to Asia since taking office in 2009 and the second this year, a period otherwise consumed by heavy-duty campaigning ahead of his poll triumph on November 6.
Obama's first stop in Thailand is meant to signal that Washington is committed to a strong set of alliances in a region preoccupied by the geopolitical implications of a rising China.
"Allies are the cornerstone of our rebalancing effort in Asia," said Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national security adviser, as Obama flew to Bangkok aboard Air Force One.
"Thailand is actually the oldest treaty ally of the United States, an ally since 1954 and a key partner in South-East Asia."
Soon after touching down, Obama will have an audience with Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been in ill health, then hold talks and a news conference with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Obama plans to discuss US cooperation with Thailand, counter narcotics issues, terrorism, trade and trafficking, and will inaugurate a program to connect US and Thai universities.
On Monday, Obama will fly to neighbouring Myanmar on a trip that would have been unthinkable just a year ago, but which has been opened up by the dramatic reform drive spearheaded by President Thein Sein.
Obama will hold talks with the former general, then travel to the lakeside residence of Aung San Suu Kyi where his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate was held for long years of house arrest.
Suu Kyi has now entered parliament after her rivals in the junta relaxed their iron fists and made way for a nominally civilian government, albeit in a system still stacked heavily in favour of the military.
Some human rights groups said Obama should have waited longer to visit, arguing that he could have dangled the prospect of a trip as leverage to seek more progress such as the release of scores of remaining political prisoners.
But officials say that Obama will encourage the regime to double down on more reform, and that his influence could be important at a crucial moment in Myanmar's emergence from decades of isolation and repression.
The US on Friday scrapped a nearly decade-old ban on most imports from the country, after earlier lifting other sanctions.
Meanwhile, Myanmar last week pardoned hundreds more prisoners, but activists slammed the move, apparently involving mostly common criminals and not dissidents, as a ploy to curry favour before Obama's visit.
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