U.S. President Barack Obama embarks on a 10-day tour of Asia Friday amid hopes for enhanced ties with the fastest growing part of the world as he pursues the ambitious goal of doubling exports within five years.
The trip comes just days after the Democrats' crushing defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections, which some say may jeopardize his chances for re-election in 2012, due mainly to the prolonged economic slump and near double-digit unemployment.
The Republican Party regained control of the House, and Democrats retained a majority in the Senate by a narrow margin in the elections, overshadowed by the slumping economy, federal budget and trade deficits, health care, taxes and other domestic issues.
Obama likely faces a tough road ahead on his domestic agenda, but his stature may not be weakened in foreign policy issues, although congressional Republicans may force him to abandon his goals regarding global warming and arms reduction, and to bolster free trade.
"The president's most important international trip is occurring when his political fortunes have fallen to their lowest ebb," said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security.
"The president knows that his administration's future ultimately rests on addressing domestic issues, especially jobs and economic opportunity," the scholar said. "But the road to economic recovery runs through Asia. And what happens at the G-20 meeting in Korea and the APEC summit in Japan matters."
Obama will fly to Seoul Wednesday on the third leg of his tour, which will also bring him to India, Indonesia and Japan.
Indonesia, Obama's home for four years as a child and the most populous Muslim country, also figures into Obama's attempts to accommodate the Muslim world during the ongoing war on terrorism.
In Yokohama, Japan, Obama will attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to seek liberalization of trade among Pacific rim countries. The U.S. will host next year's APEC forum in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In Seoul, Obama will attend a summit of leaders of 20 leading economies to seek ways to recover from the worst recession in decades through the rebalancing of policies, the reform of the global financial institutions and assistance to developing countries.
Obama wants to avert a currency war among countries trying to depreciate their currencies to help their goods remain competitive in the global market.
Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser, said early this week he did not expect the G-20 summit to resolve differences over the value of the Chinese currency.
"We don't expect the China currency issue to be solved once and for all in Seoul," he said. "This is an ongoing effort."
G-20 finance ministers agreed last month to move towards market-determined exchange rate systems and keep trade imbalances at sustainable levels but fell short of accepting Washington's proposal for limiting current account surpluses and deficits to less than four percent of gross domestic products.
The United States and European Union have stepped up pressure on China to appreciate the yuan, blaming the undervalued Chinese currency for the burgeoning trade deficit and job cuts in the U.S. and Europe.
China says any sharp appreciation of the yuan will jeopardize its fledgling economy and subsequently undermine the global economy, already suffering from the worst recession in decades.
Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the Asia Society, expressed fears that a failure by G-20 leaders on exchange rates will lead to a trade war.
"If President Obama and the other G-20 leaders do not develop and oversee the strict implementation of a broad agenda for more balanced, equitable and sustainable global growth, the alternative is another recession or worse," Metzl said.
Many countries are intervening in foreign exchange markets to keep their currency's value low after having exhausted other stimuli, including expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, since 2008.
The U.S. House is weighing a bill to slap retaliatory tariffs on goods from countries suspected of manipulating their currencies.
The Treasury Department last month delayed the release of a report on exchange rates, pending the discussions in the G-20 summit next week.
The yuan's value has risen about three percent since June, when China scrapped the yuan's peg against the U.S. dollar for more flexibility. Many American economists say the yuan is undervalued by up to 40 percent.
The two most pressing agenda items for Obama's meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul will be the ratification of a pending free trade deal and the resumption of the six-party talks for North Korea's nuclear dismantlement.
Speaking to the Foreign Press Club Thursday, Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security Council, said North Korea will be high on the agenda when Obama meets bilaterally with Lee and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seoul and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Yokohama.
Hammer called on North Korea to apologize for the sinking of a South Korean warship and show its commitment to denuclearization before returning to the six-party talks, which have been in limbo since early last year due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea denies responsibility in the Cheonan's sinking, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea in March.
Some believe the sinking was masterminded by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son and heir, Jong-un, amidst an unprecedented third-generation power transition in a communist state.
The leader-in-waiting was promoted to four-star general and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party in September.
"We're watching the transition closely," Jeff Bader, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, told reporters last week. "But our policy is not fundamentally geared to whether 'A' or 'B' emerges in charge. It's geared to some principles that we look for the North Korean government to adhere to."
The aide said that Obama will also discuss with Lee the ratification of the Korea FTA, which has been pending for more than three years over lopsided auto trade and restricted shipments of beef.
Obama Monday spoke with Lee over the phone and hoped to "use the next week to make progress toward an agreement," saying, "If we can reach a satisfactory agreement on the key issues for American workers, we will have a deal."
Obama ordered U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in June to conclude talks with South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon on outstanding issues with the FTA before mid-November. Obama said he would like to present the deal to Congress early next year.
Working-level officials of the sides got together in Seoul for a second straight day Friday to narrow differences, and Kirk is expected to meet with Kim early next week to conclude talks. The deal was signed in 2007 under the Bush administration.
While in Seoul, Obama will also visit U.S. troops at Yongsan garrison Thursday, Veterans Day, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, and pay tribute to the extraordinary progress that South Korea has made in the past decades, White House officials said.
South Korea is the first non-G-7 member advanced economy to host the G-20 summit.