Obama, Hillary Clinton wax nostalgic as she nears exit

11/20/12 3:30 AM EST

PHNOM PENH—With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planning to wrap up her service in the next few months, she and President Barack Obama have been spending some quality time together, waxing nostalgic about their work in office over the past four years and their history as rivals in the hard fought 2008 presidential campaign.

"On the flight back from Rangoon to Cambodia, they spent basically the entire flight alone in his personal office on Air Force One just reminiscing about the last four years, but as the president said, it wasn't just the last four years, they've been through a lot together over the last five or six years and, in fact, unqiue among people they've been at this working as hard as they can for five or six years now," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters as Obama and Clinton were in Cambodia for Asian summit meeting.

"I think what the president expresses and what he believes is not only has she done a great job as secretary of state, but they've really come to become not just partners, but close friends and it's a friendship that he values very much and that he'll want to continue going forward," Rhodes said.

Rhodes made the comments as the White House announced that Clinton is being dispatched on a trip to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, aimed at quelling the violence between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. "Right now, there's urgent business to be done. As they were reminiscing, they were also talking about the situation in Gaza and the international challenges that remain," Rhodes said.