President Barack Obama tied the hopes of a faster American economic recovery
President Barack Obama tied the hopes of a faster American economic recovery to the booming Pacific Rim region, saying Sunday, “We’re not going to be able to put our folks back to work” unless the Asia-Pacific region is successful as an engine for the world.
“We consider it a top priority,” Obama said of the region where his administration is pouring in time and political capital to expand exports and business ties.
The president spoke as he dove into a day of summit diplomacy, proudly using his home state of Hawaii as the American foothold to the Pacific. He gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose nations span from Chile to China and account for roughly half the world’s trade and economic output.
In the midst of a hard re-election bid, Obama kept his message on jobs, even as he privately lobbied for help on containing the Iranian nuclear threat.
He was to cap the summit with a solo news conference in which topics on and off his scripted agenda were likely to emerge.
Born in Hawaii, Obama reveled in having the world stage on his home turf, while back east the Republicans seeking to oust him from the White House assailed his foreign policy record.
Obama used his moment to signal to business executives and Asian leaders that the U.S. has shifted from a post-9/11 war focus to re-engagement all across the Pacific.
“We represent close to 3 billion people, from different continents and cultures,” Obama told his APEC partners on Saturday, ahead of some luau entertainment. “Our citizens have sent us here with a common task: to bring our economies closer together, to cooperate, to create jobs and prosperity that our people deserve so that they can provide for their families.”
Obama did announce the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the U.S. and eight other nations before going into meetings with Hu and Medvedev where he raised a new report from the UN atomic agency. The report asserted in the strongest terms to date that Iran is conducting secret work to develop nuclear arms.