the population in east asia is about 600 million people. it has a combined gdp of almost $2 trillion. there is a lot of hope of being pinned on this region to hold up the rest of the world. europe has a huge slowdown. it is not being ignored here. a lot of heads of states, economies, they are worried about the fact that exports started to slow. a lot of the delegates by pinning their hopes on the consumer market, the fact that infrastructure is undeveloped. there is a lot of investment potential. >> what about the slowdown in the chinese economy? a delegate concerned about that? how it could impact east asia? >> they are worried about china. china has become a big trading partner. i get a sense that people are a lot more worried about the austerity measures in europe. some of the chief executives, they all seem incredibly positive. you have markets like indonesia with its 240 million consumers. consumer demand is still quite strong and resilient. we had the world report on east asia. they are expecting growth of 5.2%. they say china is begi

a permanent military presence in the middle east much like it had done fifty years in europe and east asia. the true consequences of this policy would be seen only ten years later in two thousand and one who some of bin laden cited the us military presence in his homeland saudi arabia as a reason for his hatred of the united states. in a curious twist of fate the nine eleven attacks and america's military response paved the way for the birth of new military bases in iraq and central asia first and foremost in afghanistan. the relationship between bases and war is a hand and glove relationship bases most of the us bases i would say the majority are the result of war they are the booty or loot of war in the sense that they were captured during wartime and never given back following the u.s. bombing of iraq in one nine hundred ninety one the united states wound up with military bases in saudi arabia kuwait bahrain kate our oman and the united arab emirates following its bombing of yugoslavia nine hundred eighty nine the us who wound up with military bases in kosovo or bay nia garia macedonia

due to its proximity to china and taiwan okinawa still represents america's military stronghold in east asia the island hosts thirty eight u.s. bases which house a force of thirty five thousand soldiers. when the where. the growing tension between the u.s. and the soviet union following the war led to an unprecedented global military buildup and to a strategy of exploitation of people's fears that in various forms has continued to this day. you know how bad deal the atomic bomb why she could hurt you worse than a terrible sunburn specially where you're not covered. in those years america expanded into new territories such as the case of diego garcia a small island in the indian ocean part of the british overseas territories whose inhabitants got caught up in the global power struggle. nobody seems to know that diego garcia used to have a very considerable population it was all entirely bundled up and shipped out in order to as the u.s. navy put it sanitize the players the u.s. wanted a base in the indian ocean at zero cost because of the cornwall diego garcia has a most wonderful you know lo

unit of the bank of east asia. officials at the u.s. federal reserve gave the green light to the deal which will be the first to involve a chinese government-related institution. the industrial and commerce bank of china, together with other chinese firms, will buy out the bank of east asia usa. the american local operations have 13 branches in new york and california that mainly handle retail banking. its headquarters are in hong kong. the fed also authorized the bank of china to open a branch in chicago and the agriculture bank of china to set up a branch in new york. china has been asking the u.s. to let chinese banks expand in the country. >>> the trade ministers of japan, south korea and china are said to debate trade when they meet in beijing on saturday. the ministers will likely agree to speed up talks on an economic partnerships involving 16 asian nations. they also are expected to agree that the three nations should play a leading role in forging the regional partnership. a joint statement will set out those points. last month

and east asia bureaus require an increase in speakers of languages such as arabic, hindu, and chinese, over our portions have tripled in the bureau of south and central asia affairs where language-designated position requirements have increased tenfold and in the bureau of eastern affairs corresponding with arabic requirements. the foreign service institute has expanded the foreign language training capacity to meet these demands and raise proficiency of existing foreign language speakers. more targeted recruitment, however, can help address the current challenges. and we're recruiting aggressively for certain priority language proficiency skills to address increasingly complex national security challenges, the department must have robust foreign language capabilities. therefore working in our inner agency with our interagency partners, we strongly encourage young people to study languages earlier in life starting in middle school and high school and continuing through college as my colleague just mentioned. to assist in building the pipeline, the bureau of educational and cultural af

from western europe to east asia, and from north africa to the south pacific. for over 60 years, nato has kept a safe, and this has helped to keep the world secure. we know many of the challenges of the 21st century. we also know that the future is unpredictable. but together, we can face the future with confidence, and whenever it holds. united by shared values and shared purpose, we can find common solutions. with democracy and prosperity, this will be passed down to the next. i will pass the floor to president obama. >> thank you very much. i want to take this opportunity on behalf of all of us. i want to begin by welcoming each and everyone of you. some of you took an architectural book tour, along the lakefront. chicago was a great place and look forward to having you back again. as he mentioned, so many trace their roots back to nato countries. chicago is the first american city ever to host a nato summit. i want to take the opportunity general allen and all of our men and women serving in uniform on our behalf. and those serving in afghanistan. our allia

and i think -- and he was also saying that some countries in east asia were saying, look, don't spend your time with the united states. we're going to be the next power you know, so pay attention to us. and it's a challenge for the united states on how to deal with that. so frankly, you know, my feeling is that whether it's a question of the united states' ability to be a strong economy, to be innovative, to support foreign affairs budget, whether it's security issues, it has to start at home and i think that's a key issue of trying to restore the fundamentals of u.s. growth which include dealing with the spending and debt and deficit policies. not relying solely on monetary policy as we've largely been doing because if you rely on monetary policy for a long time, you plant the seeds of other problems. i don't only mean the fiscal issues. it's also what i find interesting now and what i experience with the world bank is that because i deal with so many countries, there's a lot of innovation going on in developing countries the developed countries should pay attention to. and one of th

but this was a bank of east asia is a hong kong bank, not a chinese bank. it's been operating in america since 2001. now they're being bought 80% by big state owned bank in china. they ought to be expected to play by american rules in the american theater. and if they don't, they'll get whacked just like any other company would. so kind of what is the big deal? >> jimmy -- >> seems like we all agree and everything is fine. that seems to be this debate. jimmy, do you -- listen, this p&g story really got me worked up. i guess i'm the only one that seems to care. i know it's 20 jobs, and, yeah, they're saying it's not for tax reasons, not for this reasons. the fact is p&g was built in 1836, it pretty much is cincinnati economics. and it's very symbolic to me they're moving to singapore. i just did a piece in singapore, it's a fantastic place. i think it's more symbolic about the problems here. maybe i'm completely off the rails. >> listen, as far as china goes, listen, general i like closer economic ties, i think it's good economics and also think it's better

south asia, east asia, africa, the middle east, all over the world. so the racial configuration of our country has changed enormously since that law. >> professor kerber mentioned that one senator from pennsylvania that vilified the chinese, have you found that through history, a new immigrant group comes along and is sill phied almost equally? >> yeah. we all know that. we all know that. and i think one of the things i conclude from that or i like to think about is that we've had conflicting and contesting traditions in the united states, so that we have principles which are grand and eloquent and ethical and capacious. and they're difficult to live by and in every decade, in every generation, if you want, there's resistant. they have to be argued about. people have to be persuaded of them over and over again. they don't -- they're not static. >> we have a couple of minutes left. and i will wrap up by asking each of you if in that the issue is still fairly current, if you were called before congress to testify on the importance of the 14th amendment,

>> east asia, kind of important. but no guys with ak-47s running around blowing things up. anyway. but at the same time, in 2004, i happened to go on leave to something called the shornstein center at the harvard kennedy school and playing around with blogs and following citizen media. it was 2004 where you started to see blogs coming out and challenging both authorities as well as the authority of mainstream media. not only in the united states, however, but around the world. it was at that time you started seeing some really fascinating blogs coming out of the middle east, africa, asia, the former soviet states and so on. and so i ended up not going back to cnn. i was very excited about this idea that, you know, we the foreign correspondents don't have to be gate keepers any more. if my bosses won't let me cover my region the way i think the people of that region deserve to be covered it doesn't matter so much any more because the people of that region can cover themselves or have the opportunity to do matters into their own hands as they feel that the international media is fail

tokyo in east asia, along with los angeles in the u.s. and mexico city, are defined by geographers asga-cities t couryf azil, the ga-city ofaoaumous se. arhas joined the ranks of these world-famousetpolises,s a population of 1million people at the startof t 21st century. sao paulo is a city of immigras, who built it neighborhood by neighborhood. the first immigrants to arrive were portuguese explorers and jesuit missionaries, who settled here in 1554 and oughwithhem brazil's language a religio bureal growth did not begin wuntil the 19th ctury.54 between 1880 and the 1950s, more than ve million italians came to sao paulo, atacted by jobs in a booming cofe industry. along with these agricultural workers came small business owners and craftsmen who established an italian enclave cled bixiga , geographer fisco scarlatost nestudies immigration patter, assimilation anthe expansion of sao paulo. r him,iss t oncamic. he was an artisan anhe. myaterl grandfher came at the beginning ofhe century. assimilation anthe expansion of sao paulo. narrator e factoryi in the family day,gger an. biasaoaulo

in fact, we will see more marines out in east asia. why is that? because the marines won't be in afghanistan. they are going to be at their stations. we have a new rotational presence in australia that we're building. marines presence in guam. definitely going to make that move now, and so marie -- marine corps presence in the asia pacific also. finally, we sustained or launched new capabilities specifically for the asia pacific region. i mentioned the new bomber. didn't mention yet the virginia payload module for the virginia class submarines, conventional prompt strike and a host of upgrades in radars, electronic, protectional electronic warfare, new munitions of various kinds and on and on and on all not only protected but enhanced going forward. so i wanted to give you some of those particulars because i know that's one of the strategic principles that was most interest to an audience like that. take one more and then i'll -- that's it. the other one really derived from the president himself who had a very good instinct in this regard. he kept

. >> still to come, the world has its eyes on east asia, but does the region have what it takes to help stabilize slowing global growth? more from bangkok. rom bangkok. >>> a couple flashes here for you. spain's current account balance in march narrowed the size of its decline. rose to minus 3.2 billion euro level. details of course will tell us more about what's driving that. at the same time that we're looking at spain, though, ten year bond yields in france have now hit new record lows. will this according to trade web. so note let up yet in the flight to safety move. >> the the world economic forum in east asia kicks off bangkok today. government leaders will get their say on topics from investment opportunities to global competition. sri is on the ground with more. >> yes, one of the big themes here at this world economic forum summit is rebalancing the southeast asian economies towards more sustainable it domestic demand. that will make growth overall more robust and these economies therefore will be less dependent on the very sub uhe gated to the crisis. indonesia is well on the

east asia is the primary destination for ivory and other products. people are buying it. the united states and others have made some substantial seizures, but clearly a lot more needs to be done to e. working collaboratively with asian countries in order to reduce demand. >> improve international efforts to reduce trafficking of all kinds. and we'll hear today from our witnesses that the international community has also expanded its efforts to track money and to follow that money throughout the trafficking business. before it's too late, we need to explore dr. douglas hamilton visited with us last week and we scheduled this hearing on somewhat short notice. i appreciate his leadership over many, many years. he is the founder of save the elephants and he has spent the last 40 years on elephant conservation in africa. gentlemen we welcome you here today. this is a somewhat out of the ordinary hearing. . >> thank you to our witnesses for everything you are doing. i was just sharing with dr. douglas hamilton before we began that my own experience in traveling in uganda and ke

they said over the last 50-60 years the east, east asia have gone from being famous to this incredible nine out of 10 having my opya meaning they have blurred vision beyond two meters. >> that means they are shut in with artificial lights. >> there's a strong educational ethic in asia. and this is across all the ethnic groups there the determination of the children to do well in school combined with cultural things like children not going out in the middle of the day, having a nap in the middle of the day when they are infavents and they say you need two to three hours a day of daylight. but it's not genetic. they look at sing aappear, chinese, malaise, indians, they all suffer from myopia because they are suffering from the same conditions. >> you don't want that but -- there's more to it, right? >> yes. the 10-20% have high myopia. it means you can't see anything beyond 16 cent meters beyond the front of your face. and they say it could lead to visual impairness and people aren't awafer of how dangerous it is to your overall eyesight. >> a large scale exercise to test britain's milit

. >> she is here for the world economic forum east asia meeting. she is to address that meeting in two sessions on friday. today she is going to head to an area outside bangkok which has a high concentration of burmese migrants, one of the cheapest sources of labor here and thailand. she is going to tour that area in the morning. she will meet many of the migrants to work there and hear their concerns. yes, it is about the world economic forum. we suspect is also about the refugee camps as well. >> she expressed her feelings about her first overseas trip in 24 years. >> not verbally. she arrived late last night. she got straight into her car and was driven to the hotel where she did not speak to the press. i think it was fairly clear from her demeanor and her smile and the way she was interacting with people that she was quite excited. this is the first time in a long time she has left. there was a -- the media was waiting for her as well as people who came to see her at the airport. this was a historic moment. her refusal to leave became a to symb

assessments, east asia is the primary destination for ivory and other products. people are buying it. the chinese government with some substantial seizers but clearly, a lot more needs to be done. on that front, i want to recognize the work of the u.s., fish and wildlife -- the service is vigorously prosecutoring illegal ivory importers here in the united states but we have other options as well. along with several members of this community, he apologizes, wanted to be here today. senator coops is the chair and he's concerned about it, but he simply had a conflict. i've introduced legislation, s2318 to expand the state department's rewards program to include national crime so that we can include international efforts to reduce trafficking of all kinds and we'll hear today from our witnesses that the international community has also expands its efforts to track money and to follow that money through the the trafficking business. before it's too late, we need to explore how we can strengthen our partnerships with regional law enforcement services to help enhance th

indonesia to preserve some influence over the reclusive state and play a role alleviating tensions in east asia. nhk world, jakarta. >>> turning to singapore, where this week is all about fashion. young designers from across asia are competing to make a name for themselves. and singapore also hopes to establish a reputation as asia's capital of style. mark ho reports. >> reporter: models are strutting down the runways as part of a series of events in a launch into a leading fashion club. singapore fashion exchange is an annual event designed to turn the city into a cutting-edge industry. on monday, 12 promising designers from out of east asian countries, japan and south korea presented their collections. the event could also help boost tourism. new middle-class consumers from across the region flocked to singapore to shop for global fashion brands. >> it takes time to develop ourselves as the fashion hub. but i think we're slowly but surely getting that. we have all these events, and the rest of asia look to singapore. >> reporter: through events like these, singapore is trying to attract more

[applause] we have new supporters with the bank of east asia. we of the downtown merchants' association, private protection services, and our returning supporters. thank you so much. [applause] i would like to bring on a special friend to our community. i have known you for many years with our work in non-profit committees. he has been an important person for the apa community and citywide. >> thank you. i guess i get to bat cleanup. i am honored to be here today. thank you for your incredible hard work. it was claudine's energy and drive and commitment to make this possible. it is so important to be visible in all of our communities and that we are also visible in city hall. that is why this heritage month is so important. we're here as a community. we are out here in city hall in the main part of set -- san francisco. it is important for people to see we are active in every single facet of our city and part of city life. i want to reiterate my thanks to the sponsors and community groups. we have a list of committee sponsors -- committee sponso

one of the lessons of the financial crisis in east asia and latin america in the 1990's was macroeconomics stabilization is not enough. if you don't have basic nutrition, you can lose a generation. if you don't get kids in school, you can lose a generation. starting in mexico and in brazil they started cash transfer programs that for half of 1% of gdp, which would make me envious if i look at u.s. budgets, and they're able to do a 15% or 20% of the bottom of the population and they connect the money with requiring kids to go to school and get basic health checkups. it has probably done more for women's health in the history of mexico? . at the same time we learned lessons. in the study in brazil it showed if you get of money to the woman head of household, you get much better in the use of the community. in brazil and now mexico they are trying to expand it to financial inclusion by using cars to move beyond the cash system. we have helped expand that to 40 countries. one of my conclusions from the past years is every country needs some basic safety net system, because we are not calling t

we can cross to our east asia correspondent. these pictures is the moment ago of this very important time. >> i am just standing at the side of the parliamentary chamber. she has taken up proceed in a row g, seat number 22, she is just sitting there quietly at the moment. she is chatting to people quietly, just getting used to the atmosphere. there was huge excitement. she now waits for the speakers to come into the formal ceremony. and then they will swear the oath of office, which has held that this parliamentary debut. >> there was a big disagreement about whether this would actually be sworn in by suu kyi. >> that is right. the dispute remains. they object to one word in the wording of that code, which is safeguard the constitution. they will respect the constitution, but it does not want to safeguard a document which is what has changed. looking across the chamber, i can see the army, the air force, navy, taking another 25% the seats in the joint houses of parliament. if they want the constitution changed, they have backed

she'll give a speech at the economic forum on east asia. her supporters were waiting to greet her at the airport. aung san suu kyi will stay in thailand until the end of the week. she'll speak with representatives at the international conference about the work she and her colleagues are doing to move her country toward democracy. aung san suu kyi returned home from britain in 1988, and became a leader of the democracy movement. she spent a total of 15 years under house arrest by the military government. but she refused to leave myanmar. she feared government officials would not allow her back into the country. recent moves toward democracy encouraged her to travel again. myanmar has a productive work force, low wages and abundant resources. many business people see it as the last frontier of asia. so executives from japan and elsewhere are trying to find a way in. nhk's hir oh ta ka nagano reported from naypyidaw. >> reporter: the aim is to deepen ties and gain a strong base to promote investment. >> he's here for a long time and we're work

she'll meet with migrant workers and give a speech at the world economic forum on east asia. her supporters were waiting to greet her at the airport. aung san suu kyi will stay in thailand until the end of the week. she'll speak with representatives at the international conference about the work she and her colleagues are doing to move their country toward democracy. and she'll meet with refugees at a camp near the border with myanmar. aung san suu kyi returned home from britain in 1988 and became a leader of the democracy movement. she spent a total of 15 years under house arrest by the military government. but she refused to leave myanmar. she feared government officials would not allow her back into the country. recent moves toward democracy encouraged her to travel again. >>> myanmar has a productive workforce, low wages and abundant resources. many business people see it as the last frontier of asia. so executives from japan and elsewhere are trying to find a way in. nhk world's hiro tanaka reports. >> reporter:okyo stock exchange has signed an agreement with myanmar's c

, in east asia. third, there's been a lot of talk of a transpacific partnership. that was part of the president's initiative on asia which i certainly agree. how about a transatlantic partnership that goes beyond just nato? but thinks about a greater economic integration between north america and europe itself as a visionary idea for the future? those would be some of the recommendations that we have for the united states. we of course value so much the leadership of france in nato. as fred said i went through along with damon, along with my free close friend, dan, who is an outstanding assistant secretary of state for europe in the bush administration, we went through some very difficult times. the extraordinary act of the european allies coming to our defense on september 12, 2001, invoking article 5 for the first time in nato history. then the near death experience of nato nearly breaking up in our division over the iraq war in 2003. one of the great saving strength of nato in the last five years

emdemocratic in chicago or a protest in knew she sha can reverse brat through latin america through east asia. or when a housing bubble bursts in las vegas it can unsteady markets in london and mumbai. the world has changed. the amount on the velocity of change is breathtaking. citizens and nonactors like ngos, organizations or kril cartels and terrorist networks increasingly are influencing international affairs for good and ill. so we face these complex challenges that are cross cutting that no one nation can hope or expect to solve alone. so huh we operate in this world must obviously change. when i became secretary of state people were questioning if america was still willing to shoulder leadership. it's not hard to remember why, two wars an economy in free fall, diplomacy, deemphasized traditional alliances fraying the international system that the united states have helped to build and defend over many decades seemed to be buckling under the weight of new threats. and so what we've tried to do in the last three plus here's is make sure we shored up and secured america's global leadershi

myanmar's national league for democracy say their leader will be attending the world economic forum on east asia. the three-day meeting opens next wednesday in the thai capital. myanmar's president thein sein and other leaders from the association of southeast asian nations will also be there. the talks will focus on a number of issues including asia's role in the global economy. aung san suu kyi has led myanmar's democracy movement since 1988 when she returned from britain to visit her sick mother. she spent much of the past two decades under house arrest. she also refused to leave the country because she feared military leaders would have denied her re-entry. aung san suu kyi won a seat in parliament in bi-elections last month. she's scheduled to travel to norway in june to deliver an acceptance speech for the nobel peace prize she won in 1991. she will then head to britain to address that country's parliament. >>> a tunisian prosecutor is demanding the death penalty for the country's former president. a court is trying zine el abidine ben ali in absentia for his alleged role in the deaths of

. >>> now let's go to east asia. a seasonal rain band is stretching from southern china through the southern tip of the korean peninsula into western japan. precipitation are quite right in the eastern section, but southern cna will continue to deal with thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail in some locations. up to 100 millimeters of rain is still in the cards over the next 24 hours. lots of floods and landslides have been reports. so any additional rain is not good news. and then we have a strong low over northern vietnam producing torrential rain. out towards the east we can see this pink showing up. this is sanvu. it has been upgraded to a severe tropical storm. continues to work its way toward thogasawa island. it could produce stormy conditions on the island starting tomorrow. so we'll keep you updated on the situation. and it looks like it will move towards the northeast so no major -- no direct impact on mainland japan is in the forecast. just rough sea conditions along the pacific coast. as for the high 23 deg