Controversial Burma visit "not an endorsement" of its government, Obama says

President Obama and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (not pictured) attend a joint press conference, in Government House on November 18, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. / Photo by Jack Kurtz/Getty Images

Updated 2:30 a.m. ET

President Obama has become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma. He landed there Monday.

While he's there, the Burmese public will hear him congratulate the former pariah state "on having opened the door to a country that respects human rights and respects political freedom," he said during a press conference Sunday. "But what they'll also hear is that the country has a long way to go."

Mr. Obama's unprecedented stop through the nation -- also called Myanmar -- during his Southeast Asia trip has angered some human rights activists who believe the country should prove it has truly moved on from its years of brutal military rule before a sitting president pays it a visit. But Mr. Obama argued during Sunday's news conference in Thailand that Burma's steps toward democratization deserve acknowledgement.

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Obama: Myanmar visit "not an endorsement of the Burmese government"

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The visit "is not an endorsement of the Burmese government," the president pointed out, but "an acknowledgement that there's a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw."

Citing positive leadership from Burma's president, Thein Sein, and Parliament member Aung San Suu Kyi -- both of whom he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Monday -- as well as the release of political prisoners, Mr. Obama said the nation is demonstrating "an articulated commitment to further political reform." While admitting no one "is under any illusion that Burma has arrived," he argued, "If we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time.

• Obama makes historic stop in Burma

"One of the goals of this trip is to highlight the progress that has been made, but also to give voice to the much greater progress that needs to be made in the future," the president continued. "Change can happen very fast if a spotlight is shown on what's going on in a country, and the people there start believing that their voices are heard around the world. And one of the things that we can do as an international community is make sure that the people of Burma know we're paying attention to them, we're listening to them, we care about them.

"And this visit allows me to do that in a fairly dramatic fashion," he concluded.

Speaking Monday after a private meeting with Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, Mr. Obama said he's seen encouraging signs of progress in the country in the past year, including her release from house arrest and her election to Parliament.

The president's stop in Myanmar also gives him an opportunity to see a place that helped form his Kenyan grandfather, according to the New York Times. Hussein Onyango Obama spent part of World War II in what was then Burma as a cook for a British Army captain.

Later Monday, another presidential first: Following his Burmese visit, Mr. Obama was to travel to Cambodia to attend the East Asia Summit.

[mjvwsr]

Out visiting fellow despots?

[ZackKhan]

Is he going to pressure Burmese government regarding Rohingyas. Ethnic sect being cleansed by burmese government!!

[kbbpll]

This is a very big deal for the people of Myanmar.

[Zato_Ichi]

Come on, CBS! the place that President Obama will visit is called The Republic of the Union Of Myanmar. Where do you get this "Burma" from? You guy are living in the 90s? How difficult for you to call the country's official name, Myanmar.

[hypnotoad72]

Very true.

Nixon went to China.

[jackflashub60]

Well Proteus old bean! Love his sorry a$$ while you can! I will bet you he gets his butt impeached...! The conservatives will have the last laugh...!

[hypnotoad72]

What's worth laughing about, again?

[jackflashub60]

Does anyone besides Michele Malkin know how to say crap weasel?

[nousernametaken1]

anything he does. they will hate on.

[hypnotoad72]

Agreed.

[lapazjim]

Well the question is why did he go now??The U.S. needs his so called guidance with its current problems.The Fiscal Cliff is looming and if it goes so will the U.S. economy.He needed to stay in DC along with the other elected clowns and take care of this..That means no breaks for anything until its taken care of(or maybe he wants this cliff to hit us).We are suffering in this country as is and most of us do not give a damn about other countries problems.
The overall cost of this little excursion will probably be in the mllions.Millions that could have been used for the good of this country!!
since when did Obama have a foreign policy??He didn't have one before>So why does he pick now to begin one.Maybe its the Obama plan of pain for us all here in the U.S.!!!!!

[iamproteus]

Have you been asleep for the last 4 years??? Or are you just being a typical "conservative" that wouldn't give the President credit if he single handedly brought us universal peace and prosperity?

[hypnotoad72]

So you blissfully ignore the number of times the GOP gave taxpayer money to corporations that offshore, resulting in - amongst other things - a larger national debt because there are fewer jobs to get revenue from?

So you blissfully ignore the number of times the GOP raised the debt ceiling, said "Reagan proved deficits don't matter", etc?

Were you really born yesterday, lapazjim?

[gripp13]

Obami should be at home dealing with our issues ! But his interest is somewhere else as always !

[asdfdfdd]

Republicans should be dealing with their own issues !
And Stop interfering with the President of the United States!

You think you're cute - you're just another GOP loser!

[iamproteus]

I think it's great that we have a president that can deal with more than one thing at a time!