U.S. President Barack Obama looks to audience members seating behind him on stage as he speaks during town hall with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) at Souphanouvong University in Luang Prabang, Laos, Wednes.
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The first United States president to set foot in Laos while in office, Mr Obama lamented that many Americans remain unaware of the “painful legacy”.
He cited the example of Alibaba founder and chairman, China’s Jack Ma as an example of the dynamism that could see individuals rise to their potential through innovation and enterprise. “That’s part of what I’m trying to change, because this is actually the region that’s going to grow faster than anyplace else in the world”.
Between 1964 and 1973, the USA conducted 580,000 bombing missions over Laos, dropping 270 million cluster bombs on the officially neutral country. Then he walked to the back wall of the temple to look at a line of large golden statues. “The war did not end when the bombs stopped falling”.
“I’m inspired by you”, he told one survivor, Thoummy Silamphan, who uses a prosthetic after losing a hand to one of the bombs.
Obama greets temple monks in Luang Prabang. Instead, he posed for a group photo before heading to a shop to buy gifts for daughters Sasha and Malia.
For Obama, the visit serves as a capstone to his yearslong effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States.
The president did not come to apologise.
In response to questions from the audience, Obama said he hopes the next US leader will continue his increased engagement with the Asia Pacific region and that he believes Congress will pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
The punishing air campaign on Laos was an effort to cut off communist forces in neighboring Vietnam.
People back home are not too happy with Barack Obama after the president said Americans are lazy because they are uninterested in learning about other people and cultures.
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Obama attends the gala dinner during the second day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Vientiane. Terrorism, natural disasters and military resources are among the topics being discussed. Its usually because we are being lazy, and were not being as creative as we could be about how to do it in the smarter, sustainable way.
