MYANMAR:
Myanmar started moving from a half-century of military rule to democracy three years ago. But the sweeping reforms that marked President Thein Sein's early days in office have stalled and in some cases slid backward. Activists are again being jailed. The media is under pressure. And the military is blocking opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's path to the presidency.
Though not expected to be part of the official dialogue, mistreatment of the country's 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims in the predominantly Buddhist nation has captured headlines worldwide. Denied citizenship by national law, they are effectively stateless and face systematic discrimination and persecution.
More than 100,000 Rohingya have fled the country by boat in the last two years. Another 140,000 are living under apartheid-like conditions in displacement camps.
ISLAMIC STATE GROUP:
The U.S. is looking to Indonesia, Malaysia and other predominantly moderate Muslim nations in the region to help prevent recruitment of extremists for the Islamic State group, following revelations that Australians are among the group's fighters. That includes working to rebut radical ideologies and to crack down on terrorist financing.
Governments in Southeast Asia - which accounts for an estimated 15 percent of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims - worry that extremists in the region will be inspired by the Islamic State group's call to jihad. Some have started actively monitoring social media and online chatrooms used by radicals to recruit followers or post inflammatory comments.
WHO'S ATTENDING:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit on Wednesday and the East Asia Summit on Thursday bring together more than 18 leaders. They include Obama, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This will be the first ASEAN summit for newly elected Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
