VIENTIANE — Barack Obama, on his final visit to Asia as US president, insisted on Tuesday renewed American engagement with the region would endure after he left the White House.
“America’s interest in the Asia-Pacific is not new. It’s not a passing fad. It reflects fundamental national interests,” he said in a speech in the Lao capital of Vientiane.
The US president is making his 11th and last trip to the Asia-Pacific, seeking to cement a “pivot” to the region that has been a hallmark of his eight-year administration.
During his speech in Laos, Obama took time to summarize that policy, which has often been distracted by protracted violence and instability in the Middle East.
“As president, a key priority of my foreign policy has been to deepen our engagement with the nations and peoples of the Asia-Pacific,” he told delegates, adding that he remained “confident” the new engagement would last.
Obama trumpeted increased military cooperation with countries such as the Philippines, Singapore and India, as well as a push for greater trade with the region, and vowed this would continue.
“We are here to stay. In good times and bad, you can count on the United States of America,” Obama said.
President Barack Obama also pledged on Tuesday to dramatically increase US efforts to clear millions of bombs secretly dropped on tiny Laos by American planes a generation ago, saying the clean-up was a “moral obligation.”
Laos became the world’s most-bombed country per capita from 1964 to 1973 as Washington launched a secret CIA-led war to cut supplies flowing to communist fighters during the Vietnam War.
Much of the country is still littered with ordnance, including millions of cluster munition “bomblets” that maim and kill to this day.
The issue has long dogged relations between the United States and Laos, a cloistered and impoverished communist nation.
But both sides have moved closer in recent years and Obama’s visit — the first by a US president to Laos — is being hailed as a landmark opportunity to reset ties.
On the first day of his two-day trip, Obama announced $90 million for Laos over the next three years to address the impact caused by unexploded ordnance.
“Given our history here I believe the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal,” Obama told a crowd of delegates, including communist party leaders, students and monks, during a speech in the capital Vientiane.
The figure dwarfs Washington’s previous commitments to Laos — in the last 20 years it had given a total of $100 million.
But it mirrors what happened in Vietnam as ties warmed between the two former foes during the early 2000s.
As in Vietnam Obama stopped short of issuing any kind of apology for American military action, but recognised the suffering it had caused all sides.
