United States presidential visits to Southeast Asia

Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia (both highlighted dark green)

There have been twenty-one United States presidential visits to Southeast Asia by nine 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 nine visits, followed by Indonesia 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	Country	Locations	Purpose / highlights
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 Philippine Congress. 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 (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 (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 and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân. Held talks with Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. Visited the Jade Emperor Pagoda.
	September 6–8, 2016	Laos	Vientiane	Attended the Eleventh East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN summit meeting.[48]

See also

• Foreign policy of the United States
• Foreign relations of the United States

References

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2. "Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson". Office of the Historian. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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4. "The President's Daily Diary: October 26, 1966". Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
5. "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". 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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