Your morning global affairs speed-read

President Obama is headed to Cambodia after a six-hour visit to Burma where he vowed to support the country's transition to democracy. The president also announced the the return of the United States Agency for International Development along with $170 million for projects over the next two years. [The New York Times] 

In Cambodia, the president is expected to meet with outgoing Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, as well as leaders of the countries in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc. The United States faces intensifying competition from China for influence over the impoverished southeast Asian country. [The Wall Street Journal] 

Israel-Palestine: Egypt's prime minister said on Monday that an agreement brokered by Cairo to stop the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza could be close. [Reuters]

President Obama met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Monday, in what U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes described as a “tense” meeting between the two leaders.

According to pool reports, the president “did not smile” as he greeted the Cambodian prime minister at a photo op ahead of the meeting. The meeting was closed to the press, but Rhodes later told pool reporters on hand that the president spent most of the meeting discussing Cambodia’s record of human rights abuses.

“He said that those types of issues are an impediment to the United States and Cambodia developing a deeper bilateral relationship,” Rhodes said.

Obama, the first sitting president to visit the country, said he hoped his trip would "sustain the momentum for democratization."

“They had it right, and they had it right early,” Rogers said.

"We need a person of enormous prestige and influence to have these parties sit down together," McCain said.

"No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens," said the president in defense of Israel.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was also questioned on the Benghazi talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. 

Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit Burma, which has been transitioning to democracy after brutal military rule.

Speculation about Rice's future as U.N. ambassador intensified after President Obama defended her account of Benghazi attack.