Obama seeks greater US role, clout in East Asia

[The Northerner]

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Deepening ties with Asia, President Barack Obama will appeal on Friday to nations large and small for help with the America's security agenda, anxious to build some regional political balance to the rising might of China. He will try to prod for some progress over the hotly contested South China Sea, one of the most vital shipping channels in the world.

Obama's Asia-Pacific tour has now brought him home twice — first to Hawaii, where he was born, and now to the Indonesia, a nation of thousands of islands where he spent years as a boy. His stop in Bali is driven by his promise to be the first American president to take part in the East Asian Summit, a forum he wants to elevate as a force friendly to American interests.

Obama arrived in this resort island late on Thursday from Australia, where he announced a new military presence and sent Beijing a message that America "is all in" across the Asia-Pacific. The White House is determined to show that American leadership here, far from home, is wanted after a decade in which wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated attention.

The United States needs help from the region, too — both in bolstering the stalled American economy and in cooperating over threats from piracy to nuclear proliferation.

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