Blaming Republicans for the cancellation of US President Barack Obama's four nation Asia trip, the White House today said the "completely avoidable" government shutdown was hurting the president's efforts to promote trade and US influence in emerging world markets.
"The cancellation of the trip is absolutely another consequence of the House Republicans' decision to force a shutdown of their government. And it's a completely avoidable consequence of a completely avoidable shutdown," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
"It is a setback to our ability to create jobs through the promotion of US exports and to advance US leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world," he said responding to a questions.
"The President is committed to the pivot of US policy towards Asia, to the rebalancing of our policy around the world towards this important region of the world. He looks forward to continuing his work with our allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region and to returning to the region at a later date," Carney said.
In the absence of Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry would be attending the meetings in Indonesia and Brunei.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said this "completely avoidable" shutdown is setting back America's ability to create jobs through promotion of US exports and to advance leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world.
"The President looks forward to continuing his work with our allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, and of course, the secretary, as I said, will ably be representing the United States in these different for a," she added.
Carney said Obama made the decision that was based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel under the circumstances of a shutdown.
"It was his determination that he should be here continuing to press his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government," he said.
"This is not good for America. It's not good for our economy to have the president unable to travel to Asia, where some of the fastest-growing economies in the world are located, to make the case for America's economic dynamism and America's potential as a source of investment and also to make the case for America's national security interests in that region," the presidential spokesman said.
Obama, he said, very much wanted to go and believed it was the right thing to go.
