Strongmen to Predominate at Obama’s SE Asia Summit

A coup leader with a penchant for song. A sultan with a taste for the high life. A ruthless prime minister with 31 years on the job. A former furniture salesman. A communist politburo veteran. A prime minister trying to shake off a $700 million financial scandal
Strongmen to Predominate at Obama’s SE Asia Summit
President Barack Obama at a news conference in the White House Brady Press Briefing Room in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 18, 2015. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
The Associated Press
Updated:

WASHINGTON—A coup leader with a penchant for song. A sultan with a taste for the high life. A ruthless prime minister with 31 years on the job. A former furniture salesman. A communist politburo veteran. A prime minister trying to shake off a $700 million financial scandal.

When President Barack Obama welcomes Southeast Asian leaders for a shirt-sleeves summit set to begin Monday in California, he'll have some interesting dining companions.

U.S. officials say the unprecedented gathering, running through Tuesday, is the culmination of Obama’s seven-year effort to engage with the Asia-Pacific, a strategic push that China views as an attempt to contain its rise.

For the first time, the American president has invited to the United States all the leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a diverse and democratically challenged 10-nation grouping. The meeting place is the sprawling Sunnylands estate where Obama hosted an ice-breaking summit with China’s President Xi Jinping in 2013.

US President Barack Obama (R) walks along with Burma Labor Minister Aye Myint (L) in Naypyitaw. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)
US President Barack Obama (R) walks along with Burma Labor Minister Aye Myint (L) in Naypyitaw. AP Photo/Khin Maung Win