Obama’s Asia Tour: Delicate Diplomatic Balancing Act

The Heat

U.S. President Barack Obama has embarked on a tour of Asia that will include meetings in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia. This has been dubbed by western media as the “great reassurance tour” to let Washington’s allies in the region know of the country’s commitment to Asia.
After arriving in Japan, President Obama has met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. CCTV’s White House correspondent Jessica Stone reports on the latest developments surrounding Obama’s visit.

Any strategic discussions about Asia will include China, the dominant power in the Eastern Hemisphere. According to the White House, President Obama does not want this trip to look like it’s part of an anti-China “containment” effort. To explore these issues, CCTV’s Anand Naidoo speaks to Stephen Harner, an expert on U.S.-China relations who has also lived and worked in Japan for 12 years; Robert Daly, Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center; and Ming Wan, Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University.

Foreign policy experts say trade, strained relations between Japan and South Korea, and military ties with the Philippines will be high on the agenda of Obama’s 4-country Asian tour. The U.S. President will also try to foster a closer alliance with Malaysia in the first official U.S. visit to the nation in half a century. To discuss these initiatives, CCTV’s Anand Naidoo is joined by Stephen Yates, former Deputy Assistant to U.S Vice President Dick Cheney on National Security Affairs; and Wang Yiwei, Professor at the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China. The interview has been divided into two parts below:

Part I:

Part II: