Obama in Malaysia

U.S. President Barack Obama continues his travels this past week to the Far East from the Philippines to Malaysia.

In the Philippines, President Obama attended the APEC summit. In Malaysia, he meets with the leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries. Both APEC and ASEAN are region economic blocs of countries dealing with the promotion of trade.

In Malaysia, President Obama took an opportunity meet and held a town-hall meeting with university students. While answering questions at a university town-hall meeting, Obama, stressed on the issues of government transparency and the importance of the freedom of the Press.

At the government level, the issues that were discussed between the two countries were about peace and stability in the region. Political tensions in the South China Seas were also discussed including the cooperation to counter extremism. The recent beheading of a Malaysian citizen by the Abu Sayyaf Islamic group in the southern Philippines was brought up as an example for the common fights to eradicate such groups.