he first stop on the trip for the President is in Guam. We’ll be in Guam Monday, March 22. And that evening, Guam time, the President will be hosting a public event where he’ll be able to speak to both our -- the community in Guam and of course some of the military personnel that the United States has in Guam. Later in the call Dennis can field questions about this portion of the trip.
The next day, on Tuesday, the 23rd, we’ll be making our way to Indonesia. The President will be greeted with an arrival ceremony and there will be several events associated with that arrival ceremony, which we’ll be giving you more specifics on as we get closer to the day. But that first day he’ll have a bilateral meeting with the President of Indonesia. And following that bilateral meeting they’ll host a joint press conference. Then that night the President will be hosted at a state dinner by the Indonesians, which he very much looks forward to.
The following day, Wednesday, the 24th, the President will be giving a speech. This speech, of course, will be an opportunity for him to discuss the comprehensive partnership that we’re developing with Indonesia and with the Indonesian people. Of course this is a country that the President has personal experience in, having lived there for four years as a child; having a sister who’s half Indonesian; and his mother of course worked extensively in Indonesia for 20 years. So he’ll be able to speak to his connections to the country.
And he’ll also be able to discuss the efforts that the United States cooperates with Indonesia on as it relates to democracy and as it relates to Indonesia’s position as a country with the world’s largest Muslim-majority population, as well as a country with a strong history of pluralism. And in some respects it will be of course his first trip to a Muslim-majority country since he was in Egypt and delivered his speech in Cairo, so he’ll be able to speak to some of the progress that’s been made and that needs to be made on the issue that he spoke to in Cairo, as well.
The rest of that day -- we look forward to making some additional cultural stops as well as the President will be meeting with some business leaders in the region to highlight again America’s growing economic ties with Indonesia. We believe that this can be an economic relationship that can serve our mutual interests and will be part of, of course, the President’s efforts to deepen our economic relationship across the region.
He’ll also be meeting with Indonesian parliamentary leaders as a part of his effort to, again, reach out and speak to a broad cross-section of Indonesia’s government and society.
Then we’ll be moving on to Bali. And on Thursday, March 25th, the President will host a civil society event in Bali. The reason that we’re choosing Bali to highlight this particular issue is that Bali is host to the Bali Democracy Forum, which is a signature initiative of the President of Indonesia’s and a very positive effort, again, to advance democracy and civil society in the region and around the world.
So President Obama will have an opportunity in Bali to meet with a group of civil society leaders in order to highlight the important role of civil society in the emergence of Indonesia’s democracy, and also how that might -- that effort might support civil society across the region. And to that end, we’ll be inviting civil society groups from other parts of Southeast Asia as well to discuss issues related to political participation, freedom of information, and human rights, broadly speaking.
After the President is in Bali, we will move on to Canberra. And here I’d just stop and say that, of course, Australia is increasingly -- is a longstanding ally of the United States, an increasingly important ally in both the region and the world. In many ways it’s a model alliance for the United States. We have very robust cooperation with the Australians on security issues, economic issues, environmental issues. They’re obviously a close partner of us in Afghanistan, where they’ve been steadfast in their support there. We run a very positive trade relationship with Australia that supports American jobs and supports economic prosperity for both Australians and Americans. And of course, we’ve cooperated closely on clean energy issues and efforts to combat climate change, Australia also being a partner through the G20. And the President will be underscoring this alliance throughout his time in Australia.
He’ll begin that night with a dinner with Prime Minister Rudd, who’s been a particularly close partner of the President’s both bilaterally on a personal basis, and also in international forums. So the President is looking forward to the opportunity to share this time with Prime Minister Rudd in Canberra.
The next day, on Friday the 26th, we will have a very robust program of events. The President will meet with the Governor General in the morning. Then he will have a series of -- he’ll have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Rudd, building on the work, the discussions they’ll have at dinner. Following that bilateral meeting, we anticipate a joint press conference. Read the transcript
Monday, March 15, 2010
Obama's Schedule in Indonesia and Australia
This is from Ben Rhodes' conference call regarding Obama's upcoming trip to Australia and Indonesia. Obama leaves on Sunday, March 21, after signing healthcare legislation (she hopes). Here is a sketch of his schedule:
