Starting point Poland: U.S. Obama goes on European tour

03.06.201409:27

During his four-day stay in Europe President Barack Obama is to visit Poland, France and Belgium. Mr Obama has begun his trip to Europe Tuesday in Warsaw, where Russia’s actions in Ukraine will take centre stage.

President Obama is going to take part in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the election victory of union leader Lech Walesa‘s Solidarity movement that spelled the end of four decades of Soviet-imposed communist rule in Poland.

It was three years ago when Mr Obama arrived in the Polish capital last; then he participated in the meeting of the leaders of Central European countries.

{movie}Warsaw: Preparations for Obama’s visit.|right|16788{/movie}

President Obama’s aim in Warsaw is to further clarify for his allies the policy he laid out in a speech at the West Point military academy last week, when he said diplomacy and multilateral action, not guns, are his preferred way to resolve crises. The issues of energy suply security, NATO modernisation are also to be raised. The first items on Obama’s agenda are meetings with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, whose government wants tougher sanctions and far more than the 150 U.S. troops who landed here in April as a sign of American support. Furthermore, President Obama is scheduled to meet with Ukraine’s president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, in Warsaw on Wednesday, before traveling to a G-7 summit of industrialized democracies in Brussels.

Then Mr Obama is to head to Brussels where the G-7 summit will be held. The meeting was originally planned as a G-8 event to be held in the Russian resort of Sochi, before the group barred Russia and switched the venue following the Russian annexation of Crimea.

The last stop for the U.S. president later in the week is Normandy in France, where he will mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of France and the start of the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among those present, but his meeting with Mr Obama has not been arranged.