Obama in Thailand, Beginning Southeast Asia Trip

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tour 

Wat Pho Royal Monastery in Bangkok, November 18, 2012.

BANGKOK — President Barack Obama is in Thailand at the start of a Southeast Asia trip focusing on the U.S. economic, political and security shift to Asia, and on democracy and human rights issues.

Obama's brief stay includes a visit to Wat Pho, the royal monastery in Bangkok.

He then goes to a hospital in Bangkok and will have an audience with Thailand's king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, a highly significant event with a monarch revered by the Thai people.

At Government House, Obama meets with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra before they hold a joint news conference.

Thailand is a key non-NATO ally of the United States.  Military-to-military relations are deep, and the two nations conduct annual joint exercises.

With his visit to Burma Monday and Cambodia the following day for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, this trip is designed to further define the U.S. shift of focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

In remarks in Washington, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said this shift is about more than just re-vitalizing alliances and engaging with regional organizations such as ASEAN.

"Our over-arching objective is to sustain a stable security environment, in a regional order rooted in economic openness, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic governance and political freedom," said Donilon.

Obama flies Monday to Rangoon where he will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit a country locked in isolation for decades under military rule.

After a meeting with Burma's reformist President Thein Sein, Obama goes to the Rangoon home of democracy figure and member of parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The White House says Obama will make his speech to the people of Burma from the University of Rangoon.

In Cambodia, the president attends the East Asia Summit, and holds talks with leaders from ASEAN.   

White House officials say Obama will also use talks with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen to voice U.S. concerns about human rights violations in Cambodia.