The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) was held in Bali, Indonesia, on November 19, with US President Barack Obama in attendance for the first time. Three days before the summit, Obama announced that from mid-2012 a build-up to 2,500 US Marines rotating through Darwin, in northern Australia, will begin. Maria Monica Wihardja, Researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, and Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Indonesia, argues that this announcement has generated a mixed reaction in the region, including in Indonesia and China.

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