Obama Offers Assurances of U.S. Shift Toward Asia BRISBANE, Australia - President Obama sought to give new momentum to his strategic shift to Asia on Saturday, telling an audience of students here that the United States could be a force for order in a fast-growing region shadowed by threats like a nuclear-armed North Korea and maritime disputes between China and its neighbors. "I'm here today to say that American leadership in the Asia Pacific will always be a fundamental focus of my foreign policy," Mr. Obama said at the University of Queensland. In his address, the president acknowledged skepticism in some quarters about how real the shift to Asia was, given distractions like the Islamic State, the Ebola outbreak, and the Ukraine crisis. "They wonder whether America has the staying power to sustain it," he said. But he insisted that the United States was enriching its military ties and trade relations with Asian countries, detailing a series of military operations in the region. "Day in and day out, steadily and deliberately, we will continue to deepen our engagement," he said. Mr. Obama said the United States would rotate additional Marines through Darwin, in northern Australia, where it has established an outpost to project American military might in the Pacific. He described missile defense cooperation with South Korea, counterterrorism training with the Philippines, and defense alliances with Japan. The president, who was ending a three-nation Asian tour by attending a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized powers in Brisbane, was bolstered by a landmark climate agreement with China this week. He announced a $3 billion American pledge to a fund that will help developing countries confront the dangers of climate change. Mr. Obama's heavy emphasis on climate change could stir tensions with his Australian host, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a longtime skeptic of climate science who has resisted putting it on the agenda of the Group of 20 meeting. In a shot at Mr. Abbott, Mr. Obama joked that he knew climate change was the subject of "healthy debate" in Australia. The president also visited Myanmar, where the reform process has bogged down amid widespread violence against the country's Muslim minority and signs that the military-dominated government will not allow the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to run for president. "The question we face is which of these futures will define the Asia Pacific in the century to come," the president said. Conflict or cooperation? Oppression or liberty?