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The precarious nature of the budget negotiations is not lost on Asian countries, and Obama will likely find himself on the sidelines offering reassurances to other leaders that the U.S. will not plunge over a fiscal cliff. "Some, particularly allies, will worry about the impact on defense spending at a time when Chinese power is rising," said Michael Green, a former Asia adviser to Bush who now is a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank. Telegraphing Obama's response to that concern, White House national security adviser Tom Donilon conceded that "after a decade of war ... there will be reductions in the U.S. defense budget." He added: "Guided by our new defense strategy, our defense spending program will continue to support our key priorities, including our presence and missions in Asia." During the brief stop Monday in Myanmar, Obama will meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein and deliver an address in which he will call for continued political reforms in a country that had been internationally shunned for decades. The East Asia Summit includes the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and eight other nations: the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
[Associated
Press;
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