RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – The guest list at Sunnylands reads like a roster of the rich and famous, from years past to today: Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Queen Elizabeth II, to name a few.
President Barack Obama will add more names to the VIP record Monday when he turns the 200-acre California desert estate into a center of international diplomacy and welcomes Southeast Asian leaders for a two-day summit about economic and regional security issues.
In years past, Obama has flown to the annual summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Last fall in Malaysia, he invited the 10 member countries to meet on U.S. soil for the first time, part of his effort to sharpen the U.S. policy focus on the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region.
While leaders from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia will be seeing Sunnylands for the first time, Obama has increasingly used the estate’s tranquil setting as a place to conduct U.S. foreign policy.
An added lure for an avid golfer like Obama is Sunnylands’ nine-hole course. It’s considered one of the country’s best.