Obama to brand Putin a menace
US president will use speech to
EU to say Russian leader is a threat to international system built up by
Europe and US
- Obama secret agent sent home after being 'drunk'
- Offshore windfarms vital amid tensions with Russia
-
Far-right leader's death raises Ukraine tensions
Obama to highlight Putin threat to EU during keynote speech in Brussels
US president will use visit to brand Russian leader as a menace to international system built up by Europe and US - theguardian.com,
Barack Obama with
Belgium's King Philippe, second left, and Belgian prime minister Elio Di
Rupo, second right, at Flanders Field Cemetery in Waregem. Photograph:
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Barack Obama is to charge Vladimir Putin
with being a menace to an international system built up over decades
following the Russian leader's sudden appropriation of part of Ukraine.
In his sole big policy speech of a four-day trip to Europe, Obama, on his first presidential visit to Brussels, the capital of the European Union and Nato's headquarters, will seek to stiffen European spines against Russia and pledge US security guarantees for east European allies on Russia's borders who are alarmed at the Kremlin's expansionist aims.
"The speech itself is an opportunity for him to step back and look at the current events in Ukraine in a broader context," said a senior US administration official.
"Standing at the heart of Europe in Brussels, the centre of the European project, he will be able to speak about the importance of European security, the importance of not just the danger to the people of Ukraine but the danger to the international system that Europe and the United States have invested so much in that is a consequence of Russia's actions … [Europe] ultimately has been an anchor of the international system that we've spent decades to build, and it's that international system that has been put at risk by Russia's recent actions."
The centrepiece of the Obama visit is the address on Wednesday evening to about 2,000 young people at an art deco arts centre in central Brussels. Before delivering the speech, Obama has a summit lunch meeting with EU leaders, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, both bowing out later this year, then a meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Dane who heads the Nato alliance and whose term also expires this year.
Russia's annexation of Crimea will dominate the speech and meetings. Although this is the first time Obama has come to Brussels as president, Ukraine has already forced a second visit. He is expected back in June for a meeting with G7 leaders because the US and Europe have frozen Russia's membership of the G8 and called off a June G8 summit in Sochi in Russia.
As well as Ukraine and Russia, the US and EU leaders will discuss their ambitious negotiations on a transatlantic free trade area which, if successfully concluded, would boost the EU economy by more than €100bn (£83bn), according to Brussels, although economists say trade agreements actually have little impact on levels of trade and point to China's soaring trade performance as proof.
The trade talks may also be encumbered by European complaints about the National Security Agency surveillance scandal, with White House reforms of NSA bulk data gathering in the pipeline. The Europeans will press the US leader to facilitate reciprocity in the courts, meaning that Europeans in the US should be able to seek redress in the American courts if they feel their data privacy rights have been violated by US agencies.
Americans in Europe can go to the courts, but not vice versa.
At Nato headquarters, Obama is expected to discuss efforts to boost security for eastern allies alarmed by Putin's behaviour, for example by sending air reinforcements to Poland and the three Baltic states, all Nato and EU members.
"There's no question that Nato is prepared to defend any ally against any aggression," said the senior US official. "To reassure them, we do think we should take additional steps. We've already deployed Baltic air policing, additional planes over the Baltic countries. We've deployed an aviation detachment to Poland.
"We are looking at doing more things like that. We'll be discussing very specifically what more can be done in terms of signalling concrete reassurance to our eastern European allies."
In the centenary year of the start of the first world war, Obama started the Belgian leg of his trip on Wednesday by visiting a US war graves cemetery in Flanders, north-west of Brussels.
In his sole big policy speech of a four-day trip to Europe, Obama, on his first presidential visit to Brussels, the capital of the European Union and Nato's headquarters, will seek to stiffen European spines against Russia and pledge US security guarantees for east European allies on Russia's borders who are alarmed at the Kremlin's expansionist aims.
"The speech itself is an opportunity for him to step back and look at the current events in Ukraine in a broader context," said a senior US administration official.
"Standing at the heart of Europe in Brussels, the centre of the European project, he will be able to speak about the importance of European security, the importance of not just the danger to the people of Ukraine but the danger to the international system that Europe and the United States have invested so much in that is a consequence of Russia's actions … [Europe] ultimately has been an anchor of the international system that we've spent decades to build, and it's that international system that has been put at risk by Russia's recent actions."
The centrepiece of the Obama visit is the address on Wednesday evening to about 2,000 young people at an art deco arts centre in central Brussels. Before delivering the speech, Obama has a summit lunch meeting with EU leaders, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, both bowing out later this year, then a meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Dane who heads the Nato alliance and whose term also expires this year.
Russia's annexation of Crimea will dominate the speech and meetings. Although this is the first time Obama has come to Brussels as president, Ukraine has already forced a second visit. He is expected back in June for a meeting with G7 leaders because the US and Europe have frozen Russia's membership of the G8 and called off a June G8 summit in Sochi in Russia.
As well as Ukraine and Russia, the US and EU leaders will discuss their ambitious negotiations on a transatlantic free trade area which, if successfully concluded, would boost the EU economy by more than €100bn (£83bn), according to Brussels, although economists say trade agreements actually have little impact on levels of trade and point to China's soaring trade performance as proof.
The trade talks may also be encumbered by European complaints about the National Security Agency surveillance scandal, with White House reforms of NSA bulk data gathering in the pipeline. The Europeans will press the US leader to facilitate reciprocity in the courts, meaning that Europeans in the US should be able to seek redress in the American courts if they feel their data privacy rights have been violated by US agencies.
Americans in Europe can go to the courts, but not vice versa.
At Nato headquarters, Obama is expected to discuss efforts to boost security for eastern allies alarmed by Putin's behaviour, for example by sending air reinforcements to Poland and the three Baltic states, all Nato and EU members.
"There's no question that Nato is prepared to defend any ally against any aggression," said the senior US official. "To reassure them, we do think we should take additional steps. We've already deployed Baltic air policing, additional planes over the Baltic countries. We've deployed an aviation detachment to Poland.
"We are looking at doing more things like that. We'll be discussing very specifically what more can be done in terms of signalling concrete reassurance to our eastern European allies."
In the centenary year of the start of the first world war, Obama started the Belgian leg of his trip on Wednesday by visiting a US war graves cemetery in Flanders, north-west of Brussels.
- COPY http://www.theguardian.com
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário