Summits are a circus with many rings and acronyms. At the ASEAN summit, the 10 Southeast Asian leaders met counterparts from China, Japan, and South Korea. These 13 countries then met again with India, Australia and New Zealand.

Some 42 agreements were reportedly penned at the meeting, on issues ranging from outstanding trade and economic matters to the launch of a human rights commission. Not bad for a summit that some feared would not happen at all: an earlier meeting planned for April in Bangkok had been disrupted by protesters - "red shirts" who support ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

As for Obama, he will first visit Japan, and, while at APEC, will also attend the first US-ASEAN summit. Afterwards, he will go to China and South Korea. What additional dimension...