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Opening a four-country swing through the Asia-Pacific region, President Barack Obama is aiming to promote the U.S. as a committed economic, military and political partner, but the West's dispute with Russia over Ukraine threatens to cast a shadow over the president's sales mission.

Obama arrived in Tokyo late Wednesday for an official state visit after flying overnight from the U.S. He headed straight for a private dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, setting the stage for bilateral talks Thursday. Obama will also be the guest of honor at a state dinner Thursday night at the Imperial Palace, the moat-lined and stone-walled home of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. He is traveling without first lady Michelle Obama.

The eight-day trip is a do-over of the Asia tour Obama had scheduled last October but canceled in the midst of the partial shutdown of the U.S. government.

As with last fall's trip, the White House wants to keep the focus on Obama's promised "rebalance" of U.S. policy toward Asia, after years of attention on the Middle East and the fight against terrorism. One goal of Obama's stops in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines is to demonstrate the benefits to America of deeper economic relations with the fast-growing region.

But the continued need for Obama to devote time and energy to more pressing matters at home and abroad has fostered lingering doubts here about the depth of the U.S. commitment. And the situation in Ukraine threatens to divert at least some of Obama's attention this week.

Relations between neighbors Russia and Ukraine remain tense nearly a week after both countries, the U.S. and the European Union inked an agreement in Geneva calling on Moscow to use its influence over pro-Russian forces to have them lay down their arms and end their occupation of government buildings in eastern Ukraine.

Each side accuses the other of failing to uphold its end of the deal.

The White House, which lays the blame squarely on Russia and praises Ukraine for behaving responsibly, has said it is monitoring the situation closely and is prepared, without being specific about a timeline, to slap additional sanctions on Russia "in the coming days" if it fails to abide by the terms of the tenuous deal.

"We are calling on all parties to comply with the commitments they've made," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with Obama.

The U.S. response in Ukraine has unsettled some Asian countries, leaving them to wonder how reliable a partner the U.S. would be if they ever faced a similar situation given their own sea and air disputes with China. They are seeking reassurance from Obama.

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Obama Opens 4-Country, Asia-Pacific Trip in Tokyo

GOP Establishment Goes Nuclear On Rand Paul
Rand Paul #39;s noninterventionist foreign policy views aren #39;t currying him any favor with conservative pundits, who have recently attacked the Kentucky senator ...

By: Secular Talk

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GOP Establishment Goes Nuclear On Rand Paul - Video

Sen. Rand Paul on Fox amp; Friends with Brian Kilmeade - 6/19/13
Sen. Rand Paul on Fox Friends with Brian Kilmeade - 6/19/13 Sen. Rand Paul on Fox Friends with Brian Kilmeade - 6/19/13 Sen. Rand Paul on Fox am...

By: TheHistoryChannel6

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Sen. Rand Paul on Fox & Friends with Brian Kilmeade - 6/19/13 - Video

CHICAGO Let some candidates seek the middle. Rand Paul is comfortable in the muddle.

Some have said the junior senator from Kentucky is the most intriguing of the possible Republican presidential candidates for 2016.

But if he is the most intriguing, it is not because he is the most interesting. It is because its so hard to figure out just what he is saying.

Abortion? That ought to be easy for a conservative like Paul, right?

Not so fast there.

I think the debate is about when life begins, Paul said, stating the problem, but not the solution, something he has become very adept at doing. Is it OK for an 8-pound baby to be aborted one week before delivery? If the mother says shes anxious and wants to kill myself, you can have the abortion one day before its due?

(PHOTOS: Rand Pauls career)

Paul was speaking at the University of Chicago in an event sponsored by its Institute of Politics. His questioner was the institutes founder and former Obama aide, David Axelrod. And Axelrod tried to pin Paul down several times. But it was like trying to pin down quicksand.

Axelrod asked Paul to state when he thought life begins.

My personal religious belief is that life begins at the very beginning, Paul said.

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Rand Paul makes a muddle

First-term Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that lack of experience can sometimes be a good thing for people seeking top offices against career politicians who have become entrenched in the current political system.

I was a physician, and then a U.S. Senator, and people said, You need to be a state legislator and a mayor and all of these other things before youre in the U.S. Senate and I absolutely disagree with that because I think in some ways, when you have people who are career politicians, theyve been beaten down by the system and are so part of the system that they cant see all the problems of the system, Paul told reporters after speaking at a school choice forum in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

The comments came after last weeks remarks by Bob Dole, a former GOP presidential nominee and long-serving U.S. senator who belittled Paul and fellow Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as first termers.

I don't think they've got enough experience yet, Dole told the Eagle newspaper of Wichita, Kansas.

While Paul said he was not responding directly to Dole, the Kentucky Republican said, Maybe you can have too much (experience as well) in the sense that I think that over long periods of time, people lose their zeal for change in Washington and they become part of the system.

Paul said he never criticized President Barack Obama, a first-term Illinois senator, for having a lack of experience when he sought the White House.

Pauls appearance at Josephinum Academy, a Catholic all-girl high school, was part of a two-day Midwest swing to tout school choice as a way to try to gain Republican support from traditional Democratic voters in the African-American and Latino communities.

We have to figure out as Republicans how to get our message to the people who favor charter schools and choice in schools and say, Look, we do care about your kids and frankly the other side cares more about the status quo than your kids.

During his talk, co-hosted by the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, Paul labeled the fight for school choice and publicly funded vouchers as between dead enders and those who believe in education. Afterward, Paul told reporters the dead enders included Democrats in Illinois and nationally, as well as teachers unions.

The Chicago Teachers Union and other educators unions have opposed many aspects of school choice, including charter schools and vouchers, contending they divert public tax dollars from public schools.

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Sen. Rand Paul says lack of experience not always bad