Obama expects tough meetings in Europe and Saudi Arabia

The US president's six-day trip to Europe and the Arabian Gulf will not be easy. He can expect tough discussions on a range of issues from Ukraine to the rift within the GCC.

US President Barack Obama speaks on economic opportunity for women and working families at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida on March 20. Saul Loeb / AFP PHOTO

WASHINGTON // Barack Obama opens a six-day trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia on Monday seeking to reassure US allies amid the worst East-West crisis in years and to defend his nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

A visit to the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, which grew out of the US president’s initiative to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and radioactive material, has been planned for months.

But it has been transformed into the most important trip to Europe by a US president in years because of the sudden crisis over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Mr Obama has called a G7 summit in The Hague to deepen his effort to isolate Russia and present it with “costs” over its incursion into the Ukrainian region.

Shockwaves from Crimea’s return to Russia will overshadow The Hague summit and provide the subtext to Mr Obama’s onward trip to Brussels to meet EU and Nato leaders.

The trip comes as Western leaders rethink their relationship with Russia, following a post-Cold War period in which they sought to usher Moscow into the broader international community.

“I think for Mr Putin, the only thing that has surprised him these past three weeks from Washington was just how weak our response has been,” said Andrew Kuchins, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Washington has slapped visa bans and personal financial sanctions on some top officials in the president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, but has yet to aim painful blows at the heart of Russia’s economy.

One of Mr Obama’s core messages for the trip will be that Washington will stand by security guarantees for its Nato partners, including post-Soviet states who joined the alliance.

Mr Obama will also send a message of solidarity to US allies when he sits down with the South Korean president Park Geun-hye and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in The Hague.

Washington is keen that historical disputes between the two allies do not disrupt its Asian alliance network at a time of rising tensions between East Asian powers and China.

Mr Obama and European leaders will seek to project a united front against what they see as a violation of international law committed when Russian troops entered Crimea in an incursion swiftly followed by a referendum to join Russia.

But it is unclear if key EU states, which have greater exposure to Russian trade, investment and energy exports than the United States, will sign up for truly punishing economic sanctions in the event of new provocations from Moscow.

“These sanctions will be very difficult and very painful,” said Heather Conley, also of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“That is why the United States has to work very hard to convince the most reluctant — which will be our three strongest allies in Europe: Germany, France and the UK.”

In Brussels, Mr Obama will meet EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

It will be Mr Obama’s first visit to EU headquarters as president and will come at a time when relations have been tested by the furore over US surveillance operations revealed by fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Mr Obama will end his trip in Saudi Arabia, where he will try to cool concerns about his nuclear diplomacy with Iran, which is viewed with scepticism by the government in Riyadh.

Susan Rice, Mr Obama’s national security adviser, said on Friday that the White House weeks ago had considered holding a GCC summit in Riyadh over diplomatic rifts in the bloc and began “preliminary consultations” but then abandoned the idea.

“The situation between and among the members of the GCC has grown more complex of late,” she said. “And while we maintain very strong and cooperative relationships with each of the GCC countries, we didn’t think that from their point of view that the time was optimal for a collective meeting.”

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters