Obama to make refueling stop in Hawaii after trip to Australia

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President Barack Obama pauses as hecklers in the audience interrupt his speech during a campaign event for gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy at Central High School in Bridgeport

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President Barack Obama will make a refueling stop at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam this weekend on his way back to Washington from Australia.

Air Force One is expected to arrive early Sunday morning for just two hours as the president’s plane is refueled. There are no scheduled events outside the base.

Obama is closing out his weeklong trip through the Asia-Pacific region with a stop in Australia.

Obama’s plane touched down early Saturday at Base Amberley, the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest base. From there Obama travels to Brisbane to take part in the annual Group of 20 economic summit.

While in Australia, Obama will give a speech at the University of Queensland about the status of his administration’s effort to engage more intensely in Asia. It’s a cornerstone of Obama’s foreign policy, but there are concerns that crises in other parts of the world have diverted Obama’s attention.

During a stop in China, Obama secured unexpected agreements with China on climate change, military cooperation and trade. And in Myanmar on Friday, Obama received a full-throated endorsement of his commitment to the country’s democratization from revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was enthusiastically greeted by young people at a town hall in the bustling commercial capital of Yangon.

"You’re always popular in somebody else’s county," the president told the cheering youth. "When you’re in your own country, everybody is complaining."

For a beleaguered White House, the trip has been a welcome relief from criticism and crisis in Washington, as well as a reminder of the opportunities that could still exist in the president’s final two years in office.

Obama this week has clearly relished being able to focus on one of his foreign policy priorities: an expansion of U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, which he hopes becomes a central part of his legacy. While Obama has often been criticized for letting his so-called pivot to Asia languish amid more urgent matters, his trip this week has suggested he still could breathe new life into that effort.