Much has been said about US President Barack Obama’s maiden voyage to Asia: that he will address the newly elected Japanese government; he will engage in town-hall style meetings with Chinese students and ensure positive engagement with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao; talk to his counterpart in South Korea with a keen emphasis on the growing North Korean threat. But the real novelty will lie in his participation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

The APEC meet this year is to talk of the creation of an “Asian Economic Community”; rumours have circulated that he may well even embark on a US-ASEAN free trade agreement. There is also speculation about what may transpire if Obama comes face to face with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein — perhaps reversing a 43-year-old estrangement.

Policy towards Burma has been ad hoc from the very start, even among its neighbours. Talk of Burmese entry into ASEAN first circulated in December 1995, when delegates attended the summit as guests. 1996 saw accession to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation where Burma acquired observer status; permanent membership was then brought on the agenda. 1997 was beset with disagreements: Malaysia was against early membership, Indonesia spoke out against ASEAN “rushing into” Burma’s participation and Philippines joined in. Eventually the end-of-year ASEAN meet in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 saw Burma and Laos as full members. (The primary concern was Burma’s abysmal human rights record, but practicalities too were worrying.)

The significance of Sunday’s meet is two-fold. First, that there is a president in the White House who has been elected after a campaign where he said he was willing to talk to anyone, leading to expectations of improved ties between the US and Asia. Second, he has markedly departed from the policies of his predecessor: Bush isolated Burma through “non-engagement”, Obama is seen to be agreeable to reaching out to the country.

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