US President Barack Obama will travel to Indonesia with his family next month, returning to the country where he spent four years as a child, the White House announced late on Monday.
Obama, who has referred to himself as "America’s first Pacific president" because of his birth in Hawaii and his years in Indonesia, will also visit Australia during the trip, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Gibbs said that while in Indonesia, Obama will launch a US-Indonesian partnership aimed at broadening and strengthening ties between the United States and the country that is home to the world’s largest Muslim population.
Asked whether Obama, to be accompanied by his wife Michelle and two young daughters Sasha and Malia, would visit childhood haunts, Gibbs said: "I’d anticipate that will likely be one of the stops."
Obama’s late mother, Ann Dunham, came to Indonesia with her 6-year-old son in the late 1960s to join her second husband, an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro.
Obama recounts in his book Dreams From My Father being amazed to find the house they moved into on the outskirts of Jakarta had a collection of exotic animals including a monkey, birds of paradise, a cockatoo and several baby crocodiles.
His time in Indonesia was cut short in 1971 when he was sent to Hawaii to live with his grandparents, while his mother stayed with her husband.
Indradjaya Madewa, a friend of Obama’s when they attended the same elementary school, said he hoped the president would visit the school during his visit.
"He remembers me and my family because we were neighbours, as well as classmates," said Madewa, now a 47-year-old businessman.
In Australia, he will mark the 70th anniversary of US-Australian relations and hold talks with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the global economic recovery, the war in Afghanistan and climate change. In Canberra, Rudd said he hoped the president would address the Australian parliament.
(Agencies)美国白宫于本周一晚些时候宣布，总统贝拉克•奥巴马将于下月携家人访问印度尼西亚，重回他曾度过四年童年时光的地方。
白宫发言人罗伯特•吉布斯称，奥巴马此次还将访问澳大利亚。奥巴马总统出生在夏威夷，并曾在印尼居住过几年，因此他自称为“美国首位太平洋总统”。
吉布斯称，奥巴马出访印尼期间，将启动印美两国合作伙伴关系，以扩大和巩固美国和这个全世界穆斯林人口最多的国家的关系。
在被问及奥巴马是否会重游童年故地时，吉布斯说：“我想有这个可能。”奥巴马将携夫人米歇尔和两个女儿玛丽亚和萨莎一同出访印尼。
上世纪60年代晚期，因母亲安•邓纳姆改嫁给一个名叫罗洛•苏托洛的印尼男子，六岁的奥巴马便跟随母亲来到了印尼。奥巴马的母亲现已去世。
奥巴马后来在《我父亲的梦想》一书中写道，当时他们一家搬到雅加达郊区的一处住所，他惊奇地发现那里有很多种奇异的动物，其中包括一只猴子、几只天堂鸟、一只凤头鹦鹉和几只幼鳄。
1971年，奥巴马被送至夏威夷与外祖父母一起生活，他在印尼的生活从此告一段落。而他的母亲仍留在印尼与继父一起生活。
奥巴马的小学同学因德拉德加亚•马德瓦称，他希望奥巴马访问印尼时能回母校看看。
现年47岁的商人马德瓦说：“他还记得我和我的家人，因为那时我们除了是同学外，还是邻居。”
奥巴马访问澳大利亚期间，将庆祝美澳建交70周年，并将与澳大利亚总理陆克文举行会谈，讨论全球经济复苏、阿富汗战争和气候变化等问题。陆克文在堪培拉表示，他希望奥巴马此次能在澳大利亚国会发表讲话
责任编辑：sealion1986
