Obama postpones his Australia visit for third time

WASHINGTON - To the disappointment of many Australians, U.S. President Barack Obama has postponed his visit to the country for the third time by re-scheduling it to Indonesia in November, where he once lived as a boy.

Earlier, Obama postponed an Indonesian and Australian visit twice this year, to focus on passing his health care package through the US Congress and to deal with the Mexico oil spill.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Obama called off his plans for the third time to make his first visit as President to the Muslim-majority nation following his New Delhi sojourn.

“I will continue to Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country,” Obama said.

In Indonesia, Obama would reportedly stress the country’s emerging economic weight and the role of the world’s most populous Muslim nation in battling extremism.

Earlier this month, the US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, said he expected the president to eventually make it to Australia.

“We’re already working on when he is going to come back here. He will be back here,” the paper quoted Bleich, as saying at an Australian Strategic Policy Institute luncheon last week.

Obama’s visit to Indonesia would reportedly allow him to speak directly to the Islamic world in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, following rows over plans to build a Muslim cultural centre in New York and a US pastor’s cancelled plans to burn Korans. (ANI)