WASHINGTON, D.C.: Barack Obama will meet Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein on a historic first visit to the country by a sitting US president designed to boost a political reform drive.

The White House said on Thursday (Friday in Manila) that Obama would also visit Thailand and attend the East Asia summit in Cambodia on the November 17-20 trip, which will mark his return to the world stage following his re-election.

During a few hours in Myanmar, Obama will deepen his administration’s support for the startling reform process launched by Thein Sein that has seen Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for years, become a member of parliament.

In Thailand, a US treaty ally, Obama will meet Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and mark 180 years of diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian kingdom, a key regional military ally.

The president, who presided over a rebalancing of US diplomacy toward Asia, is also expected to hold bilateral talks with regional leaders on the sidelines of the summit in Cambodia.

He will use the Asia trip to “discuss a broad range of issues, including economic prosperity and job creation through increased trade and partnerships, energy and security cooperation, human rights, shared values and other issues of regional and global concern,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama is expected to turn increasingly to foreign affairs in his second White House term, which begins in January, after devoting months this year to his re-election campaign against Republican Mitt Romney.

The president was criticized for having no bilateral meetings when he made a short hop to the United Nations General Assembly in September, as aides said the crush of campaign events left no time.

Relations between the United States and Myanmar have thawed significantly since Thein Sein took the helm of a quasi-civilian regime last year and ushered in a period of sweeping reform after years of political repression by the military.

In September, Washington rolled out a red carpet welcome for Suu Kyi when she visited the White House and held private talks with Obama.

During her trip, which dovetailed with a visit by Thein Sein to the United Nations, Washington lifted a raft of sanctions on Myanmar that had been imposed to punish the suppression of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

Washington ended sanctions on American investment in Myanmar in July, enabling a major US trade delegation to visit the country.