DENPASAR

The Udayana Military Command, which overseas Bali and regions further east, said this week it had started work on securing the island ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit in November.

The president is due in Bali to on November 19 to attend the East Asia Summit. It will be his second visit to Indonesia in a year following his trip to Jakarta last November. The American leader spent four years of his childhood in the nation’s capital.

“We in the ranks of the Udayana Regional Military Command IX have received orders to prepare security. We also have started to hold exercises, including special exercises to secure the conference and the arrival of President Obama,” Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Leonard told reporters.

He said some 1,000 personnel would be deployed during the summit, scheduled to take place between

Obama had been due to visit Bali as part of his 2010 trip, but it was eventually cancelled amid repeated postponements of the Indonesia visit due to pressing domestic issues.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled, meanwhile, to be in Bali in July for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.