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Friday, November 19, 2010

Obama Sets Aside Only Two Hours To Meet With European Leaders At NATO Meeting In Portugal

Nine months after disappointing European leaders with a decision not to attend a scheduled United States-European Union summit, President Obama will meet with E.U. leaders on the sidelines of the NATO gathering in Lisbon this weekend.

Two hours reportedly have been set aside for the meeting on Saturday afternoon, with a crammed agenda topped by economic issues and including security – especially in the light of recent terrorism alerts in Europe – trade, development aid and climate change.

Obama’s trip to Europe will be over in less than 48 hours during which, according to unconfirmed Russian media reports, time will be found for a separate meeting between Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev, who will be in Lisbon for the NATO event, met with Obama just a week ago, in Japan.

The White House has not announced any bilaterals in Lisbon, apart from those with Portuguese leaders. Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, told a briefing Tuesday that “there may be additional bilateral meetings that the president is able to have on the margins of these summits.”

“The proposed U.S.-E.U. agenda is robust, but time is exceedingly short for discussion,” Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an analysis Wednesday.

She noted that “amidst a significant European economic crisis with major consequences for the United States and other countries,” less than two hours would be devoted to economic matters.     

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Turst me, his people and their people have already talked extensively about the mutual destruction of world economies and currency manipulations

Anonymous said...

of course not, he cant take time away from his muslim buddies.

Anonymous said...

lucky portugal....