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WASHINGTON—U.S. President Barack Obama will strive to put some final touches on key elements of his foreign-policy agenda and log progress on unfinished priorities as he leaves for Asia on Friday to plunge into a month of international summits.

Mr. Obama will attend a series of gatherings with world leaders, starting with this weekend's Group of 20 leading nations talks in China, that will provide one of his last opportunities to engage counterparts before leaving office. On the president's agenda will be issues ranging from the economy, trade and climate change to Islamic State, Syria, North Korea and the South China Sea.

Mr. Obama will meet Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, ahead of his final summit of G-20 leaders in Hangzhou beginning Sunday. Next week, at a meeting of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he will hold one-on-one talks with the contentious Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. That meeting will take Mr. Obama to Laos, making him the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country.

Later this month, Mr. Obama will make his last appearance as president at the United Nations General Assembly, where he plans to address nuclear nonproliferation and the international refugee crisis.

The G-20 gathering in the past has played a role in addressing global economic tumult and has served as a forum for pivotal policy debates, such as one in recent years over austerity measures. This year, the gathering also will provide a backdrop to Mr. Obama's broader goals in Asia when the longevity of his approach there is in doubt, mainly due to opposition in Congress to a new trade pact with Asia-Pacific nations.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a cornerstone of Mr. Obama's so-called Asia "rebalance," which has aimed to strengthen U.S. relations with China while establishing closer ties with other countries in the region as a counterweight to Beijing's growing influence.

Republican leaders, whose support for the pact is critical because many Democrats oppose it, have said it won't come up for a vote during the remainder of Mr. Obama's presidency.

The president plans to make the case for the trade deal throughout his trip, and White House officials said they still see a path to legislative approval for the pact.

"In this part of the world, which is the largest emerging market in the world, TPP is seen as a litmus test for U.S. leadership," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, adding that "it would be seen as a significant setback, I think, for American leadership if we don't move forward."

China isn't part of the trade deal. The White House plans for Messrs. Obama and Xi to discuss a range of tensions in the U.S.-China relationship, including tensions in the South China Sea, the economy, human rights and cybersecurity.

One of Mr. Obama's top economic priorities at the G-20 summit will be to push China to tackle excess capacity in steel and other sectors that is undermining international markets and contributing to anemic global growth.

The issue has become one of the biggest trade irritants for Washington and other capitals, who complain Beijing isn't doing enough to address the problem.

"Excess capacity distorts markets and the environment, harms our workers, and runs counter to our efforts to achieve strong, sustainable, and balanced growth," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who also will be in China, said at a briefing this week.

The excess-capacity dispute is only one of several issues aggravating trade tensions between China and the U.S. The yuan has fallen to five-year lows against the dollar. Cyberattacks on corporations are straining relations. And U.S. firms complain that regulatory barriers are restricting their access to the Chinese market even as Chinese companies, many of them subsidized by the state, amass an unprecedented level of international acquisitions and investments.

White House officials said the meeting between Messrs. Obama and Xi is likely to be their last. Mr. Obama hopes to gain a symbolic commitment from Beijing on an area where the two countries have found agreement: climate change. The U.S. and China are expected to formally join the international climate-change agreement reached in Paris in December.

While in Laos, Mr. Obama plans to meet Mr. Duterte, the new president of the Philippines. Mr. Duterte's drug crackdown has drawn U.S. admonitions on human rights, and the Philippine leader's remarks on a range of issues have stirred controversy with critics and allies alike. Nonetheless, White House officials said the Philippines, as a treaty ally of the U.S., merits Mr. Obama's attention, while cautioning that the U.S. president would speak "quite directly" with Mr. Duterte.

"The president is certainly not going to pull any punches in raising well-documented and relevant concerns when it comes to human rights," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said earlier this week.

Beyond Asia, Mr. Obama will use the G-20 summit to work on lingering foreign-policy challenges. White House officials said he would meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday; relations between the two allies have been strained following the attempted coup in Turkey in July.

Mr. Obama is also expected to discuss Ukraine and Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though the White House hasn't scheduled a formal meeting between the two leaders.

Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Ian Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 01, 2016 13:35 ET (17:35 GMT)

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