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The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Asia trip delay good news for Sasha and Malia?

President Obama’s family could be back in on the Asia trip, now that it has been postponed again until June, a White House official told The Cable. The White House informed the Indonesians of that possibility when giving them the bad news that the president’s trip to Southeast Asia would be delayed until June so ...

By Josh Rogin

March 19, 2010, 10:52 AM

President Obama's family could be back in on the Asia trip, now that it has been postponed again until June, a White House official told The Cable.

President Obama’s family could be back in on the Asia trip, now that it has been postponed again until June, a White House official told The Cable.

The White House informed the Indonesians of that possibility when giving them the bad news that the president’s trip to Southeast Asia would be delayed until June so he can be on hand for Sunday’s health-care vote and its aftermath. The president’s family had been initially scheduled to go, but were bumped from the trip after the first delay, which didn’t jive with the girls’ school schedules.

"Indonesian officials have expressed full understanding of the need for delay, and told us they were pleased with the prospect of a visit in June," the White House official said. "The president’s reference to his hope that his family could go was particularly well received, since Indonesians feel a bond with the president because of his personal history." Obama spent about four years in Jakarta as a young boy.

The White House is also not worried about any damage to U.S.-Australia relations, according to the official, because Obama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have a close relationship, which has included two Rudd visits to the Oval Office, several meetings at the G-20, and "frequent phone calls." (Frequent phone calls? Have we finally found Obama’s world leader buddy?)

"The postponement of the visit will not affect the strong ties and partnerships the United States enjoys with Indonesia and Australia," the official explained. "Both relationships are positive and deep, and the timing of a visit is less important to the Indonesians and the Australians than the fact that the president had to reschedule and will visit soon."

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin