Obama's European tour a show of "solidarity"

U.S. President Barack Obama returned here Saturday after a six-day European tour, during which he put on a show of "solidarity" while trans-Atlantic divergence may still run deep.

Trying to forge a unified position on the unrestive Middle East and North Africa was high on Obama' agenda while he was in Europe, especially because the trip started only three days after his major policy speech on those issues.

The United States has vital interests in that region while Europeans are sensitive to the developments there given the geographic proximity.

After a two-day summit in the northern French resort of Deauville, Obama and other leaders of the G8 industrialized nations pledged 20 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Egypt and Tunisia through 2013 for their "suitable reform efforts."

Of the total, 10 billion dollars would come from oil-rich Gulf states, while the United States, Britain and France have pledged their respective shares in the rest.

But with Europe's ongoing sovereign debt crisis and the ballooning U.S. deficits, it remains unclear how the West could actually honor those commitments.

Nevertheless, by putting on a show of "solidarity," Obama hoped it could ease Europeans'concerns over a supposed U.S. tendency to tilt foreign policy focus from old allies toward Asia and Latin America.

But a more urgent need may come from Washington's eagerness to shift some of its foreign policy burdens to the Europeans.

So, when addressing both houses of British Parliament, Obama asserted that even as more nations take on the responsibilities of global leadership, it was up to the United States, Britain and their European allies to lead at a time when the world was being tested by economic turmoil, unrest in the Arab world, terrorism, climate change and nonproliferation.

"We remain the greatest catalysts for global action," he said. "The time for our leadership is now."

And in a Times article co-penned with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama laid emphasis on the unique status of bilateral relations, as Britain has followed the U.S. lead in the past decade in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

"Not just special, but an essential relationship," they wrote. "It's not only history that binds us. Whether fighting wars or rebuilding the economy, our needs and beliefs are the same."

The Financial Times said in an editorial that despite "loose talk of the diminishing specialness of the Anglo-American relationship," the two countries'interests "are aligned on the most pressing questions" like Afghanistan, Libya and Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama began his European tour in debt-laden Ireland, where he delivered his campaign slogan "Yes we can" in Gaelic to the roaring approval of 30,000 audience in the center of Dublin.

"The president and his message of hope are the tonic that Ireland, and much of Europe, badly needs," the Economist magazine wrote. "Mr. Obama realizes, like others before him, that the old allies are still the more reliable friends."

And in Poland, Obama tried to show that Washington still cares about the interests of its Eastern and Central European allies with renewed promise to deepen security ties.

The White House said Obama has endorsed legislation cosponsored by several U.S. lawmakers that would reform how countries qualify for the U.S. visa waiver program to ensure that "strong allies like Poland get proper consideration."

Eastern and Central Europeans have complained since the start of the "reset policy" with Moscow that Obama has ignored their interests in favor of accommodating Russia.

By addressing two areas of vital concern to the Poles -- the U.S. visa waiver program and defense cooperation, Obama signaled "a renewed commitment" to working with Poland as a strategic ally in Europe, and in turn sent a signal to the region as a whole, said experts at U.S. think tank Atlantic Council.

At a dinner co-hosted with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski Friday evening for some 20 leaders from Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Obama reaffirmed commitments to the security of those nations.

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