Obama's visit to Indonesia and Australia uncertain
Updated
US president Barack Obama is due to visit Indonesia and Australia beginning later this week but difficult politics in Washington over the President's health care bill are proving an obstacle to his travel.
It's not entirely clear that he won't delay the trip, depending on progress in Washington. At the very least, the timetable's been shortened and the President's wife and children will not be accompanying him, if he does proceed with his travel plans. There are important international reasons for the visit to go ahead, particularly given Indonesia's rise politically and economically and the role of all three countries in the G20 as the global economic forum.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra Correspondent
Speakers: Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister; Professor Andrew MacIntyre, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University;
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MOTTRAM: It is said that Barack Obama and Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have struck up quite a relationship, with President Obama said to be impressed with Prime Minister Rudd's intellectual capacity. At this very moment, they have something additional in common as well.
Kevin Rudd:
RUDD: He has health reform on his agenda in Washington, we have health and hospital reform on our agenda here in Australia. He has a thing called a troublesome Senate, I have a troublesome Senate as well. There are a few similarities here.
MOTTRAM: As a result of the difficulties he faces on the centrepiece of his domestic agenda, Barack Obama has slightly delayed and shortened his travel plans to Australia. He's due to address Federal Parliament in Canberra on March 25, after his visit to Guam and Indonesia. When asked by reporters in Washington if the President might cancel the trip to Australia altogether, his chief adviser David Axelrod was evasive.
AXELROD: The speaker said there will be a vote. I believe there will be a vote this week.
MOTTRAM: Should it happen, Mr Obama's visit to Australia would be a chance to mark the 70th anniversary of the Australia-U-S alliance. It would doubtless also be a political boost for Kevin Rudd in an election year.
RUDD: The President is welcome in Australia at anytime. He knows that, the Government of the United States knows that, and if this visit is delayed by several days, if it's brought about by the necessities of the health reform process in the United States, I really understand that as well.
MOTTRAM: More broadly, there are good international reasons for the Obama visit to Indonesia and Australia. Professor Andrew MacIntyre, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, says it's an opportunity to connect what he calls the diplomatic dots.
MACINTYRE: I think it's something that's never really occurred seriously to any of us before, and that is that the United States, Australia and Indonesia might have some common things to say to each other, that it may make sense for us to talking about together, and but I am not suggesting that in any formalised way, because these are different countries, but just scope for greater coordination of what we are doing.
MOTTRAM: I mean the G20 is the obvious forum where that is beginning to happen. How important is that forum for those three countries, do you think?
MACINTYRE: It's of varying importance for both us and Indonesia, it gets us to what we imagine is the main table. to the United States, it's valuable as a way of getting greater coordination globally, but there is also some downside for the United States in it. So we - for Indonesia and Australia it is really important.
MOTTRAM: So should work in the G20 be the focus of what those three countries do with each other to begin with? Is that the place to start?
MACINTYRE: It is one of the places to start. It's not the only. Another early priority would be looking at shared interests within the region.
MOTTRAM: Such as?
MACINTYRE: Well, there is a string of them. We've all got an interest in advancing economic openness, we're all very trade sensitive, we've all got an interest in managing practical problems like illegal movements of people, we've all got an interest in promoting regional stability and regional security. I mean just basic things that are shared and we've all got an interest in frameworks for more effective, rather than less effective cooperation across the region.
MOTTRAM: And on that, there's Kevin Rudd's less than warmly received idea for an Asia Pacific Community. It was discussed, though minimally, during the visit to Australia last week of Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Professor MacIntyre is emphatic that it should be pursued.
MACINTYRE: Yes, the initiative is a good one. It's a modestly good idea that is worth pursuing. The region would be a better place if there was somewhere that allowed all the countries in the region to come together and talk and there is not anywhere that does that. Let's look at adapting or evolving one of the institutions that is out there already and the two most obvious candidates are the East Asian summit and APEC.
MOTTRAM: Professor MacIntyre believes this visit to Indonesia and Australia by the US President presents an opportunity to advance the Rudd thinking, if President Obama lends public support, explicit encouragement, which has so far been lacking from Washington. Professor MacIntyre also says that the Obama visit to Indonesia is important to grow a positive outlook there on the United States. Whether it all has to wait thought, is a matter of congressional health and temper in Washington.
