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Obama to Focus on Importance of Europe in Speech

In his address in Brussels on Wednesday, the president will also attempt to outline why it is crucial to confront President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia after his takeover of Crimea, aides said.


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BRUSSELS — President Obama will deliver a speech here on Wednesday that aides say is designed to explain and honor Europe’s role in the global democratic movement and to demonstrate how Russia’s use of military force in Ukraine threatens to undermine the rules that free nations have fought to establish.
Mr. Obama has spent the first half of his European trip this week immersed in the gritty details of persuading his European allies to support sanctions against Russia, President Vladimir V. Putin and some of that nation’s most prominent business leaders and politicians, and to help finance an economic recovery for Ukraine. On Wednesday, he will continue those consultations with European Union and NATO officials.
But in the speech, he will attempt to step back and look at the broader issues, aides said, in the hopes of helping to outline for Americans back home and for allies around the world why it is crucial to confront Mr. Putin after his takeover of Crimea.
A senior administration official said that by “standing at the heart of Europe in Brussels, the center of the European project,” the president “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.” The official spoke anonymously to preview the speech.
Mr. Obama will deliver the address at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, perhaps the most prominent cultural site in Belgium. A discussion of the continuing crisis in Crimea will be a key part of the speech, the official said.
“The reason we take that so seriously is both because of our commitment to the security of Europe and the ability of the people of Ukraine to make their own decisions,” the official said. “But also because it undermines the international system when there are such flagrant violations of international law.”
Even so, the president is not likely to spend most of the speech talking about Ukraine, aides said. Instead, most of the address will invoke broader themes, especially about the importance of the relationship between the United States and its European allies.
That message could help to soothe some hurt feelings among European leaders, who watched with dismay over the last several years as Mr. Obama talked about a “pivot toward Asia” in American foreign policy. The president did not seek to abandon Europe in adjusting his foreign policy, but many on the continent took it that way.
The recent revelations that the National Security Agency has spied on world leaders have deepened the chill between the leaders in European capitals and Mr. Obama. This week’s trip to Europe and the speech on Wednesday, officials said, are an attempt to demonstrate that the president still views Europe as perhaps the most crucial region in the world.
The senior official said the president will use “this moment of crisis in Europe to reinforce the importance of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace, both to the people of the United States and Europe, but also to the world — because ultimately this has been an anchor of the international system that we’ve spent decades to build.”
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