President Barack Obama departed Thursday, November 12 on a seven-day trip to Asia, mainly traveling to key destinations such as Japan, China and South Korea. Regarding the purpose of this trip, Obama said, "One of my most important tasks is to continue to strengthen the relationship between the United States and Asia." As a developing continent that already has the largest population, Asia may very well be the site for future world superpowers, and is thus a key partner in both financial as well as environmental actions.

The first stop was Japan, where the main topics of discussion included the US and Japan's stances towards North Korea's nuclear weaponry, and the close links between US and Asian economies. However, this cannot be gathered from simply watching the news, where reporters seem to be obsessed with Obama's bow to the Emperor of Japan, and what exactly this means. I will not dwell on this topic, but I will simply say that bowing is a sign of mutual courtesy in Japan, where the event was no more than a common courtesy. In fact, refusing to bow properly would have implied arrogance. In addition, the current Emperor of Japan is no more than a figurehead, a symbol of the world's oldest monarchy, but one that holds no real power.

The president addressed the Japanese public in the only major speech planned during this trip. He recollected his childhood trips to Japan with his mother. Obama also noted in an interview that the victory of the Democratic Party of Japan's candidate, Yukio Hatoyama, for Prime Minister of Japan was "political earthquake," because of his renewed vigor for nationalism over globalization at a time when the country is already facing a deficit, but insisted that the relations between the US and Japan were in an equal partnership.

In China, President Obama met with a group of Shanghai students in a town hall style meeting. Here, he dared to subtly express the fact that he did not condone the freedom of rights violations imposed by communist China on its people. In response to a question that came via the internet that read: "Should we be able to use Twitter freely?" President Obama responded that the freedom to express opinions, even dissenting ones, has given him the opportunity to grow as a leader. More interesting than the president's words was the fact that the Chinese government, infamous for their strict internet censorship, allowed these questions to stay on web sites.

But the main purpose of this track was to build relations between the US and China, not to criticize. With this in mind, Obama reassured China that the US has no intention of restraining or even slowing down growth of the Chinese economy. He also spoke with the Chinese on his intentions of using their help in bringing down the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs.

I think that the president is handling his first trip to Asia extremely well. The trip is neither so professional as to rebuff the Chinese people in favor of deals with the government nor so lackadaisical as to not address any critical issues. President Barack Obama is already the most widely traveled first-year president, having visited 16 countries already before this trip. By the time he visits South Korea and returns to Washington, this number will be 19.

President Obama's foreign policy strategy seems very different from that of his predecessor. He is working tirelessly with other countries, especially after a time when the much of the world had lost respect for the United States. Unlike Bush, who cared little about what the United Nations or the rest of the world thought, Obama is reaching out to the world. As opposed to a foreign policy that consisted of the country doing anything it deemed necessary, Obama's foreign policy tries more to work with other countries to allow for mutual benefit. Hopefully, this helps assuage the fears of those who had felt that Barack Obama, as a presidential candidate, did not have the necessary foreign policy experience.

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