Skip to footer

Security tops agenda for Obama's Philippines visit

As part of his four-country tour of Asia, Obama will visit the Philippines Monday. He's expected to highlight the importance of security cooperation and the Philippines' strategic role in the region.

|
Bullit Marquez/AP
Protesters display placards during a rally at the US Embassy against a visit of US President Barack Obama Wednesday, April 23, 2014 in Manila, Philippines. Obama arrives in Manila on Monday for an overnight stop after visiting Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.
  • By Joseph Schatz Correspondent

For President Obama and the Philippines, it’s better late than never.

More than six months after the federal government shutdown led the president to cancel a swing through the Asia-Pacific region – setting off alarm bells in Asian capitals – Obama will touch down in Manila Monday, April 28, for the last leg of his four-nation Asian tour that begins this week.

The visits to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines are designed to show the continuing US commitment to the region amid China’s rising might. A long-standing treaty ally of the United States, the Philippines has been on the front line of China’s assertive moves in the South China Sea, and has called for regional intervention.

“I think Obama has to go there for purely political reasons,” says our correspondent on the ground in the region, and show the Philippines that “this is still a priority for the US, despite Ukraine, despite the Middle East.”

As part of his visit. Obama will view a new electronic vehicle produced in the Philippines and backed by a US company, the White House said earlier this week. 

But unlike some of his other visits in the region, there is not expected to be much of a business component to Obama’s Manila trip.... For the rest of the story, continue reading at our new business publication Monitor Global Outlook.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Security tops agenda for Obama's Philippines visit
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2014/0424/Security-tops-agenda-for-Obama-s-Philippines-visit
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe