WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama departs Washington late today on a trip to Europe ringing with historic echoes, where sudden turbulence has rocked the political and security order and reshaped his foreign policy.
The East-West showdown over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which challenged the post-Cold War compact in Europe, will dominate each stop of Obama’s tour to Poland, the Group of Seven summit in Belgium and France for 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings.
On the World War II battlefields in France, there will be several potentially awkward personal encounters between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has spent months trying to isolate over Ukraine.
Washington insists there will be no formal summit between the two leaders.
Obama will also meet leaders still coming to terms with European Union elections that saw voters in several member states lash out at the bloc’s political establishment by backing radical euro-skeptic parties.
The political earthquake could threaten one of Obama’s top foreign policy priorities, the negotiation of a massive Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP).
– Nampa/AFP