United States presidential visits to Southeast Asia

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Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia (both highlighted dark green)

There have been twenty-four United States presidential visits to Southeast Asia by ten U.S. presidents. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first incumbent president to visit a Southeast Asian country when he visited the Philippines in 1960. Since then, every president, except John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, has travelled to the region. The Philippines, a former U.S. colony (1902–1946) and a close U.S. ally, is the most visited Southeast Asian country with ten visits, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam with eight, and Thailand with seven. Of the eleven sovereign states in the region, all but East Timor have been visited by a sitting American president.

Table of visits[]

President Dates Countries Locations Key details
Dwight D. Eisenhower[1] June 14–16, 1960  Philippines Manila State visit. Met with President Carlos P. Garcia.
Lyndon B. Johnson[2] October 24–26, 1966 Manila,
Los Baños,
Corregidor 		Attended the Manila Summit Conference on the Vietnam War.[3]
October 26, 1966  South Vietnam Cam Ranh Bay Visited U.S. military personnel.[4]
October 27–30, 1966  Thailand Bangkok State visit. Met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
October 30–31, 1966  Malaysia Kuala Lumpur State visit. Met with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
December 23, 1967  Thailand Khorat Visited US. military personnel.
December 23, 1967  South Vietnam Cam Ranh Bay Visited U.S. military personnel.
Richard Nixon[5] July 26–27, 1969  Philippines Manila State visit. Met with President Ferdinand Marcos.
July 27–28, 1969  Indonesia Jakarta State visit. Met with President Suharto.
July 28–30, 1969  Thailand Bangkok State visit. Met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
July 30, 1969  South Vietnam Saigon,
Dĩ An 		Met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Visited U.S. military personnel.
Gerald Ford[6] December 4–5, 1975  Indonesia Jakarta Official visit. Met with President Suharto.
December 6–7, 1975  Philippines Manila Official visit. Met with President Ferdinand Marcos.
Ronald Reagan[7] April 29 – May 2, 1986  Indonesia Bali Attended the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. Met with President Suharto and Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel.
George H. W. Bush[8] January 3–5, 1992  Singapore Singapore Met with President Wee Kim Wee and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Attended an ASEAN Business Council meeting.
Bill Clinton[9] November 12–13, 1994  Philippines Manila,
Corregidor 		State visit. Met with President Fidel V. Ramos. Visited Corregidor Island.
November 13–16, 1994  Indonesia Jakarta,
Bogor 		State visit. Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Bogor.
November 24–25, 1996  Philippines Manila,
Subic Bay 		Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.[10]
November 25–26, 1996  Thailand Bangkok State visit. Met with Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa. Received an honorary degree and delivered a speech at Chulalongkorn University.[11]
November 14–16, 2000  Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.
November 16–19, 2000  Vietnam Hanoi,
Tien Chau,
Ho Chi Minh City 		Met with President Trần Đức Lương, Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải and Communist Party General Secretary Lê Khả Phiêu. Visited the Temple of Literature and the Tien Chau village in Hanoi. Viewed a cultural performance at the Hanoi Opera House. Delivered speeches at the Vietnam National University and Saigon Port.[12]
George W. Bush[13] October 18–19, 2003  Philippines Manila State visit. Addressed a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines. Met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.[14]
October 19–21, 2003  Thailand Bangkok Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.
October 21–22, 2003  Singapore Singapore Official visit. Met with President S. R. Nathan and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.[15]
October 22, 2003  Indonesia Bali Met with President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Islamic religious leaders. Paid respects to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing.[16]
November 16–17, 2006  Singapore Singapore Official visit. Met with Acting President J. Y. Pillay and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.[17] Delivered a speech at the National University of Singapore.[18]
November 17–20, 2006  Vietnam Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh City 		Official visit. Met with President Nguyễn Minh Triết, Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng and Communist Party General Secretary Nông Đức Mạnh. Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Visited the Cửa Bắc Church, the Museum of Vietnamese History, Institut Pasteur, and the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.[19]
November 20, 2006  Indonesia Jakarta,
Bogor 		Met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Bogor Palace.[20]
August 6–7, 2008  Thailand Bangkok Met with Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and King Bhumibol Adulyadej.[21][22] Dined with Burmese activists involved in the 8888 Uprising.[23]
Barack Obama[24] November 14–15, 2009  Singapore Singapore Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.[25]
November 9–10, 2010  Indonesia Jakarta Met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Delivered a speech at the University of Indonesia. Visited the Istiqlal Mosque.[26]
November 17–20, 2011 Bali Attended the Sixth East Asia Summit. Met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.[27]
November 18–19, 2012  Thailand Bangkok Met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Siriraj Hospital and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the Government House of Thailand. Toured Wat Pho.[28]
November 19, 2012 Myanmar Myanmar (Burma) Yangon Met with President Thein Sein, National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and members of Burmese civil society organizations. Delivered a speech at the University of Yangon.[29][30]
November 19–20, 2012  Cambodia Phnom Penh Met with Prime Minister Hun Sen. Attended the Seventh East Asia Summit, a U.S.-ASEAN Leaders' meeting, and a meeting with Trans-Pacific Partnership leaders.[31]
April 26–28, 2014  Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Met with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Abdul Halim, and Prime Minister Najib Razak. Participated in a town hall meeting with young Southeast Asian leaders at the University of Malaya.[32][33]
April 28–29, 2014  Philippines Manila,
Taguig 		State visit. Met with President Benigno Aquino III.[34] Conferred the Order of Sikatuna.[35] Met with U.S. and Philippine troops and delivered remarks at Fort Bonifacio.[36] Laid a wreath and toured the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.[37]
November 12–14, 2014 Myanmar Myanmar (Burma) Naypyidaw,
Yangon 		Attended the Ninth East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN summit meeting in Naypyidaw. Met with President Thein Sein, National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, members of the Assembly of the Union, House of Representatives Speaker Shwe Mann, House of Nationalities Speaker Khin Aung Myint, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. Participated in a town hall meeting with young Southeast Asian leaders at the University of Yangon. Toured the Ministers' Building. Also participated in a round table discussion with Burmese civil society organizations.[38][39]
November 17–20, 2015  Philippines Manila Attended the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Met with President Benigno Aquino III, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.[40][41] Also met with Trans-Pacific Partnership and Pacific Alliance leaders.[42] Toured the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15) and announced the U.S. government's donation of the research vessel RV Melville and the USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) to the Philippine Navy.[43] Participated in the APEC 2015 CEO Summit with Alibaba founder Jack Ma and SALt lamp inventor Aisa Mijeno.[44]
November 20–22, 2015  Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Attended the Tenth East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN summit meeting. Visited refugees (mostly Rohingya refugees) at the Dignity for Children Foundation refugee center.[45] Participated in a town hall meeting with young Southeast Asian leaders at Taylor's University.[46] Also participated in a round table meeting with Malaysian civil society groups at the Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur.[47] Met with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
May 22–25, 2016  Vietnam Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh City 		Met with President Trần Đại Quang, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. Visited the Jade Emperor Pagoda.
September 6–8, 2016  Laos Vientiane Met with General Secretary and President Bounnhang Vorachith. Attended the Eleventh East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN summit meeting.[48]
Donald Trump November 10–12, 2017  Vietnam Da Nang,
Hanoi 		State visit.[49] Attended the APEC Vietnam 2017 in Da Nang.[50][51] Met with President Trần Đại Quang, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
November 12–14, 2017  Philippines Manila,
Pasay 		Attended the 31st ASEAN Summit. Met with President Rodrigo Duterte.[52]
June 10–12, 2018  Singapore Central Area, Sentosa Island Attended the first North Korea–United States summit with North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un. Also met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
February 26–28, 2019  Vietnam Hanoi Attended the second North Korea–United States summit with North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un. Also met with General Secretary President Nguyễn Phú Trọng and Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

See also[]

References[]

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  2. ^ "Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson". Office of the Historian. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  7. ^ "Travels of President Ronald Reagan". Office of the Historian. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  8. ^ "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". Office of the Historian. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  14. ^ Reynolds, Maura (October 19, 2003). "Bush speeds through Manila". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  32. ^ "Barack Obama visits Malaysia with economy and security on agenda". The Guardian. Associated Press. April 26, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  33. ^ Sethi, Karam Singh (May 4, 2014). "Could Obama Inspire Young Malaysians?". The Diplomat. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  35. ^ Tan, Kimberly Jane (April 28, 2014). "PNoy confers highest diplomatic honor on Obama". GMA News and Public Affairs. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  37. ^ Eilperin, Juliet (April 29, 2014). "Obama cites legacy of U.S.-Philippine cooperation as he concludes Asia trip". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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  52. ^ "Trump says to spend extra day in Philippines during Asia trip". Reuters. November 3, 2017. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
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