Obama begins 4-nation Asia trip

The president was departing on Air Force One Friday morning for Mumbai, where he was to arrive around noon local time Saturday after refueling in Germany. It is the first stop on a 10-day tour through India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, the longest foreign outing of Obama's presidency.

Obama's trip is seeking economic benefits for the United States, but advisers also are emphasizing his decision to visit four vibrant and growing democracies, an itinerary meant to reinforce support for democratic values at a time when the U.S. commitment to human rights worldwide has sometimes come into question.

The president returns home Nov. 14, a day ahead of a lame-duck congressional session where Obama will have to scratch for compromise with emboldened Republicans on extending Bush-era tax cuts, among other issues.

The Asia trip is anchored by gatherings of world leaders in South Korea and Japan, their timing unconnected to Tuesday's congressional elections.

This week's Democratic electoral bloodletting is sure to dog Obama to the other side of the world, however, as he readies for encounters with growing powers certain to be keenly aware of dealing with a newly weakened president backed by a divided Congress, its repercussions uncertain.

The trip to India is Obama's first to the expanding nation of 1.2 billion people, a huge and growing trading partner where U.S. officials see infinite potential. The president is spending three days there, dividing his time between Mumbai, the financial center on the coast of the Arabian Sea, and the capital, New Delhi, 720 miles (1,160 kilometers) inland. It is the longest single stretch he will have spent in any foreign country, a point U.S. officials are careful to emphasize.

“The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States,” Obama told reporters Thursday. “And my hope is, is that we've got some specific announcements that show the connection between what we are doing overseas and what happens here at home when it comes to job growth and economic growth.”

The president will meet with U.S. and Indian business leaders, and the White House hopes some commercial deals will be completed, possibly including purchases of Boeing aircraft by India. The United States also will be pushing for more favorable terms for U.S. exports. Obama often criticizes U.S. companies that outsource jobs overseas, but the president will have to deal with that topic delicately or not at all if he is to avoid troubling his hosts in a nation that has become associated in some U.S. minds with the call centers where people are routed for help with computer problems.

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