Obama uses tour to strengthen ties with Asia

President Barack Obama kicked off a three-country Asian tour with a visit to Thailand, using his first post-election trek overseas to try to show he is serious about shifting the US strategic focus eastwards.

Obama’s itinerary willinclude a landmark visit to once-isolated Burma and an East Asia summit in Cambodia as he seeks to recalibrate US economic and security commitments to counter China’s influence at a time when America is disentangling itself from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Bangkok, a monk in bright orange robes gave Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton a private tour of the centuries-old Wat Pho temple, taking them past its massive reclining Buddha.