By ANTARA,
Washington : New US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has chosen to visit Indonesia as part of her first overseas trip because she wants to “reach out” to the Muslim world, a spokesman said Thursday.
“It`s the biggest Muslim country in the world,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters asked why she included Indonesia on her visit to Asia. “The secretary feels it`s important to reach out.”
Clinton, who will also visit Japan, South Korea and China, will meet senior Indonesian officials in Jakarta to discuss “the close and growing partnership with Indonesia and prospectives on common interests in southeast Asia,” he said.
In his inauguration speech on January 20, President Barack Obama vowed to seek a “new way forward” with the Muslim world “based on mutual interest and respect,” after eight rocky years under his predecessor George W. Bush.
Faced with a set of daunting challenges across the Muslim world — from the Palestinian territories to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan — Obama set a new tone and promised a fresh balance in using diplomatic, military and other forms of power.
Security in post 9/11 America, he pledged, will not come at the expense of abandoning the US ideals of liberty and the rule of law, which critics say were trampled by the Bush administration`s “war on terror”.
Today`s generation knew that US “security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint,” Obama said.(*)