Asia-Pacific is key to Obama's final year foreign-policy focus

London

BARACK Obama will give his eighth and final State-of-the-Union address on Jan 12. Brought forward because of the beginning of the forthcoming presidential primary election season to find his successor, Mr Obama's speech will have a strong international economic and geopolitical focus as he sets out an ambitious foreign agenda for 2016.

With the Republicans controlling Congress, and just a year left in office, Mr Obama can potentially have significantly more impact on foreign than domestic policy in 2016, and has at least five high-profile trips already in the diary to the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. This includes visits to Japan in May for the G-7 summit; and Laos and China in September for the G-20 summit. The White House is also exploring the possibilities of historic stopovers in Cuba and Vietnam too.