Barack Obama arrived in India on Saturday in the first stop on a four-country tour of Asia that will also take him to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. More important, it will get him out of the US, where he has just suffered a mid-term humiliation.
On the face of it, President Obama might not seem too welcome in Asia either. He disembarked from Air Force One just a few hours after his central bank announced a second round of quantitative easing that will cause more pain for the region’s exporters and attract further flows of hot money. But this is a mere detail compared to the political boost attached to an American presidential visit.
That is just as well, because Obama has little else to offer the leaders he is visiting. So, we asked our readers to tell us which host country would give him the warmest welcome. Most said Japan, whose relationship with China has deteriorated after an incident with a Chinese trawler in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands. Obama’s visit will re-affirm America’s commitment to its joint security pact with Japan, and his snub of China during the trip will help deliver the message with a kick.
Our readers’ second choice was Indonesia, a country that sees the president’s visit as a homecoming of sorts. Obama lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971, when his classmates knew him as Barry Soetoro, and he is popular in the country. But the strategic importance of his visit is less significant than for the Japanese.
Indeed, it is probably less significant than for the Indians, too. After all, the president is not visiting Pakistan or China, India’s two biggest rivals. And his visit came at the culmination of Diwali, an important holiday in the Indian calendar. But there are no arms control pledges or important treaties to be discussed – instead, Obama spent his time visiting Humayun’s tomb and Gandhi’s grave.
South Korea, which came in slightly ahead of India, will host Obama for a G20 dinner and a head-to-head meeting with Hu Jintao, China’s president.
In total, 35% voted for Japan, 27% for Indonesia, 20% for South Korea and 18% for India.
Photo provided by AFP.
