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Obama's Euro-odyssey: 'Relationships'
by Mark Silva
In a weeklong journey across Europe, his first since election, President Barack Obama will not only seek a global commitment to economic stimulus -- rumored at $2 trillion in the European press -- but also work on his personal relationships with some of the world's most influential leaders, British, French, German, Russian, Chinese and more -- including that strained "special relationship'' with the British.
The president will leave Tuesday morning for London, arriving in the evening there on the eve of the summit of the Group of 20 major industrial nations and emerging economies. He will spend much of Wednesday and Thursday at the G-20 summit with the leaders of nations which, combined, account for about 85 percent of the global economy.
Obama has "two main objectives'' at the summit, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
One is "is ensuring that there is concerted action around the globe to jumpstart economic growth, and that we are advancing a regulatory reform agenda to ensure that this crisis never happens again and prevent anything like that in the future,'' Gibbs said in a briefing on the trip today. The president, Gibbs said, "is committed to ensuring that both of those messages are heard throughout the summit.''
The president also will be attending a summit of the European Union in Prague and the 60th anniversary summit of NATO in Strasbourg in travels across Europe ending in Turkey during a weeklong journey across the continent.
"It's an opportunity to... not just confront the inherited challenges that the administration took on, but also to reenergize our alliance to confront the looming threats of the 21st Century,'' said Denis McDonough, deputy national security advisor for strategic communication, joining in the briefing.
Christi Parsons of the Tribune Washington Bureau will travel with the president. Follow her reports in Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp. And for now, see more highlights of the White House's briefing on the trip today here:
That includes nuclear "proliferation, which we'll hear an awful lot about in Prague; new threats like cyber and climate and energy security, which we'll also discuss in Prague; in addition to terrorism and Afghanistan and Pakistan, which will be robustly discussed in Strasbourg and Kehl at the NATO 60th anniversary summit''
Obama also will be working on bolstering "specific alliances,'' McDonough said. This includes the "special relationship'' with Great Britain, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It also includes Turkey, which the White House calls "a vital member of NATO and a vital bilateral partner to the United States.''
At the G-20 summit, says Mike From, deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs, Obama and others will focus on a four-part program:
-- "First is putting in place significant stimulus to get growth going again.
-- "Secondly, fixing each of our financial systems to get lending flowing.
-- "Third, avoiding protectionism.
-- "Fourth, taking steps to minimize the spread of the crisis to emerging markets and developing countries.
On April 1, Obama will hold a series of meetings with Brown, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao. He also will meet the next day with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In Strasbourg and Kehl, he will meet with Sarkozy and Merkel.
April 4 brings a full day of NATO North Atlantic Council meetings, with Obama planning to underscore the shared mission of the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is deploying about 20,000 additional troops, support forces and training personnel.
The president will fly on to Ankara, Turkey, and meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and then on to Istanbul for meetings with local cultural leaders and a roundtable with students.
"It's our intention to make the roundtable an opportunity through some of the new media capabilities that we'll have with us to reach out to young people in Europe, as well as in southwest Asia,'' McDonough said. "Turkey, particularly Istanbul, has served as the bridge between these two geographic areas over the course of many centuries now.''
The White House was asked if it is getting any "signals from the Russians in anticipation of the meeting with Medvedev that they are willing to be more helpful on Iran.''
"The atmospherics around our relationship with Russia have dramatically improved in the last several weeks,'' McDonough said. "But the get-together on the 1st will be an opportunity for us to make that much more concrete.
"And our hope remains that they will recognize that, as I think they have indicated at various times, that a nuclear Iran is a shared challenge, and we'll look forward to fleshing that out more,'' he said. "But the bottom line is, I think we've seen some very positive developments over the course of the last several weeks, but we look forward to seeing if we can't put those into action.''
On the economic front, the White House was asked if the automotive industry be part of the discussions in the G20 summit, either with Germany or with other auto-producing countries"and should we expect anything coming in the future, in terms of a more coordinated effort between the United States and other auto-producing countries on that issue?''
"In fact, there is dialogue going on right now between folks here who are working on the auto sector and Merkel's representatives and Merkel's advisors on this,'' Froman said. "So there's a good -- it's good dialogue going on around that issue.''
There are reports from Europe that Brown is circulating a draft document proposing a global economic stimulus of $2 trillion.
"The communiqué is still in the process of being drafted and negotiated,'' Froman said. "There isn't any single number that is sacrosanct. I think the important thing that there is broad agreement that was reflected in the finance ministers' statement of a couple of weeks ago to do whatever is necessary to restore growth, and to put sustained effort behind that until growth is restored.''
Asked about that special relationship with Great Britain, which would seem to be strained lately, according to the various press accounts of Obama's meeting with Brown, Froman said: "Despite the back-and-forth in the press on this issue, nobody has asked and nobody is asking any country to come to London to commit to do more right now.
"I think what we do have a consensus around, and I think that consensus is broadly shared -- because it was reflected, as well, in the finance minister and central bank statement of two weeks ago -- is that the G20 agrees as a whole that we'll do whatever is necessary to restore global growth; that we'll ask the IMF to monitor what's going on with the global economy and what's necessary; and that we'll maintain that effort over a sustain period of time.
"And I think to us that's the important thing coming out of this, is a consensus that the global community has come together to solve a global problem....
"As it relates to the special relationship, I think it's indicative of the close cooperation and coordination among allies that obviously we had a -- just completed a 60-day review as it relates to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and our British allies played just a key role on that,'' he said. "They stood up a parallel review. (National Security Advisor) General (Jim) Jones worked this very aggressively with his counterparts in London, both over telecommunications but also in person here and there.
"And so the bottom line is that I think the pPresident looks very much forward to going to London,'' he said. "He has great affinity for that city, for the people there, and great appreciation for the historic relationship that we maintain.''
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