Singapore Prime Minister Lee Visits President Obama at the White House for Trans-Pacific Pact

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sat with President Barack Obama at the Oval Office on Tuesday marking the visit his first sojourn to the White House in six years. His last visit to the US was in 2010 for a nuclear summit.

Singapore is considered by the White House as a valued and key partner in Asia. In his welcome address, President Obama said that Prime Minister Lee has shown himself to be an excellent international partner of the United States.

Defense ties in Asia

Military vessels will soon move to Singapore as one of the phases of the rotational deployment of US military forces. American presence is soon to be shifted from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Asia-Pacific region boosting the presence of the US military in the locale. The US is keen on disentangling itself from the Middle East but doubts are raised on the capability of the superpower to bring balance to the region.

President Obama has started planting the seeds in Asia in November of 2012 when he visited peninsular Asian countries specifically Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Come fall, President Obama hopes to complete the discussions on the trans-Pacific trade agreement that he had been pushing for. Eleven countries in Asia are part of the pact.

Other ongoing disputes in Asia

Prime Minister Lee’s visit happened in the middle of tensions in the South China Sea with the ongoing conflict on certain disputed territories. The dispute does not involve the very prosperous island nation, but Singapore’s economy relies on the commerce and trade that pass through the conflict regions.

At the same time that Prime Minister Lee was in Washington, two Asian foreign secretaries from South Korea and the Philippines were also there for talks with the US Secretary of State John Kerry. Secretary Kerry is due to travel to Northeast Asia in a week’s time for more discussions.

Many thanks

According to President Obama, Singapore and the US have an “extremely close military cooperation.” He expressed thanks to Singapore for allowing the United States “to maintain our effective Pacific presence.” The President thanked Premier Lee and the people of Singapore as well. He mentioned that he spent part of his childhood in the country and only has affection for it.

Prime Minister Lee, the oldest son of former Singapore Premier Lee Kuan Yew, expressed his thanks for the efforts that that Obama administration is putting on with Singapore and other Asian countries. He said he was very happy and honored to be in Washington while the cherry trees are in bloom to meet with President Obama.

Prime Minister Lee is also scheduled to address the United States Chamber of Commerce and to meet with the US Secretary of State, the US Defense Secretary as well as the Secretary of the Treasury and the Mayor of New York City. He is the third leader from Asia to visit the US President in his second term of office. And in May the first female President of the Republic of South Korea will visit President Obama in the White House.