Obama, in Burma speech: ‘We always remained hopeful about you’

RANGOON, Burma — For 15 years, Aung San Suu Kyi waited in her lakeside villa, confined to the small plot of land under house arrest, dreaming of her return to the world.

On Monday, the world, or a big piece of it, came calling on her.

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President Obama says his goal in visiting Burma is to help the country sustain its momentum towards democratization. The President spoke after his meeting with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

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The gates, topped with barbed wire, swung open, and a black presidential limousine pulled into the driveway. Out stepped President Obama, pressing his hands together and bowing ever so slightly — a gesture the Burmese democracy leader, dressed in a green scarf, peach blouse and black sarong, returned.

They shook hands, and then another figure rushed forth and hugged her in a long, emotional embrace. It was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. And outside the gates, a crowd had gathered and could be heard chanting: “Obama! Freedom!”

The leaders of the free world had come with a message of hope for 60 million Burmese, but it was this bow and this hug that symbolized the most — a scene almost unimaginable just two years ago when Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, was still a prisoner in her own home and Burma was ruled by a repressive military junta.

Released in 2010, she is now a member of parliament, and she visited Obama at the White House in September.

“I’m proud to be the first American president to visit this spectacular country, and I am very pleased that one of my first stops is to visit with an icon of democracy who has inspired so many people, not just in this country but all around the world,” Obama told reporters in a brief appearance with Suu Kyi after they met privately.

He added: “Here, through so many difficult years, is where she displayed such unbreakable courage and determination. It’s here where she showed that human freedom and dignity cannot be denied.”

Stop on Asia tour

The president’s stop here was the first of two that made history Monday as he continued his trip through Asia, the region he believes holds the most promise for American economic growth and security in the coming decades.

Obama flew from Burma to Cambodia, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit that country as well. Both nations have dismal human rights records, and Obama used his stop here to both celebrate the gradual democratic opening underway and warn that its progress should not be impeded.

The outpouring of support for Obama and his delegation from throngs of Burmese citizens marked a high point of a trip that has been shadowed by the deadly conflict in the Middle East, where Israel is striking targets in the Gaza Strip to suppress Palestinian rocket fire.

Obama has been trying to reorient American foreign policy from the greater Middle East, where more than a decade of war has dominated the country’s diplomatic and military resources, to the growing powers of Asia.

At nearly every stop on a three-nation Asia tour, though, Obama has been reminded that the Middle East is likely to remain the most demanding region — requiring the most diplomatic attention and holding the most immediate peril for the United States and its allies — for the rest of his time in office. Obama has reached out repeatedly by phone to the leaders of Israel, Turkey and Egypt seeking ways to resolve the Gaza conflict.