RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Leaders of Asia-Pacific countries are wrapping up a major economic summit today in Indonesia. And as NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, much of the talk there focused not on trade or business, but on the event's big no show - President Obama.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: U.S. allies were looking forward to seeing the president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting on the island of Bali. Particularly to gauge America's resolve to counterbalance a rising China. But Mr. Obama's decision to cancel the trip because of the government shutdown left some officials here deeply disappointed.
HUANG JING: This is disaster for United States of America.
LANGFITT: Huang Jing teaches political science at the National University of Singapore. He says Mr. Obama's absence only raises more questions.
JING: People would begin to wonder if United States really has the capability, and the commitment, to this important region.
LANGFITT: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry came in Mr. Obama's place. He defended the president's decision to stay home to deal with a political crisis, and said it was no reflection on the United State's pledge to rebalance or refocus its foreign policy on this crucial part of the world.
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY: Nothing will diminish our commitment to Asia, the rebalance that President Obama is engaged in.
LANGFITT: Secretary Kerry also said the president's political opponents back home need to think beyond the Beltway.
KERRY: ...about the message that we send to the world when we can't get our own act together.
LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
