Obama's electoral loss may impact Asia trip

Washington

"NINETY per cent of success is just showing up", according to American comedian Woody Allen. So after he had cancelled a scheduled trip to Asia and missed two regional summits in the region last year, US President Barack Obama may be on the road to achieving 90 per cent of success this time. After all, he is actually showing up in Asia this year, arriving in Beijing on Monday and moving on later this week to Myanmar and Australia, attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum, the East Asia Summit, and a G-20 leaders meeting.

In fact, President Obama didn't show up at the last two Apec summits in 2012 (because of the Democratic National Convention) and 2013 (because of the government shutdown).