Washington (IANS): US President Barack Obama will visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines in late April, the White House said Wednesday.

The upcoming trip is part of the president’s “ongoing commitment to increase US diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region,” Xinhua quoted spokesperon Jay Carney as saying in a statement.

Obama had to cancel a scheduled trip to Asia in October due to a 16-day government shutdown caused by a budget impasse in Congress, a travel that would have taken him to Bali, Indonesia for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, and to Brunei for an ASEAN-US summit and an East Asia summit.