Obama: US, Russia not destined to be adversaries

8th July, 2009

MOSCOW : President Barack Obama, working to warm U.S. relations with Russia, met for the first time Tuesday with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and told college students that the two countries are not “destined to be antagonists.”

“The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game,” Obama said, speaking in the Russian capital to graduates of the New Economic School but also hoping to reach the whole nation. “Progress must be shared.”

Obama used his speech to further define his view of the United States’ place in the world and, specifically, to argue that his country shares compelling interests with Russia.

“Let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia,” he declared in his speech, not long after holding talks with Putin. The prime minister said: “With you, we link our hopes for the furtherance of relations between our two countries.”

Obama’s upbeat comments to students at the New Economic School came on the second day of his summit in Russia, where polls show people are wary of the United States and taking a skeptical measure of Obama himself. Putin hosted Obama for talks at his home outside Moscow, where the atmosphere seemed cordial.

In his speech, Obama said the interests of Russia and the United States generally coincide in five key areas: halting the spread of nuclear weapons, confronting violent extremists, ensuring economic prosperity, advancing the rights of people and fostering cooperation without jeopardizing sovereignty.

On Georgia and Ukraine two nations that have sought NATO membership to the chagrin of neighboring Russia Obama tried a diplomatic touch. He defended the steps nations must take to join the alliance, adding, “NATO seeks collaboration with Russia, not confrontation.”

The U.S. and Russia have plenty of significant differences, but Obama suggested one of the biggest problems is fixable: deeply rooted and harmful assumptions from another era.

“There is the 20th century view that the United States and Russia are destined to be antagonists, and that a strong Russia or a strong America can only assert themselves in opposition to one another,” Obama said. He dismissed that as inaccurate.

The challenge is more daunting in this country, where Obama is viewed with much greater skepticism than elsewhere and where the Russian people are wary of U.S. power.

Obama hoped to change minds with a speech that White House aides had billed in advance as a pillar of his foreign policy on the same level with his call for a nuclear-free world while in Prague, or his outreach to the Muslim world in a speech in Cairo.

The matter of democracy is closely watched because the U.S. has watched warily as Russia’s control on dissent and the press has only stiffened in recent years. The country is considered one of the most dangerous places for investigative journalists to work.

Obama referred to Putin as “President Putin” in an interview with NBC, and then said, “I don’t think it’s Freudian. He used to be president

http://www.newsabahtimes.com.my/nstweb/fullstory/30206

Obama in Ghana for first sub-Saharan Africa trip

John Atta Mills (right), president of Ghana, and US president Barack Obama walk together upon arrival at the Presidential Castle in Accra, Ghana

12th July, 2009

ACCRA: US President Barack Obama received a jubilant welcome in Ghana as he began his first official trip to sub-Saharan Africa where he will present his vision on good governance on Saturday.

Thousands of people lined the streets Accra late Friday to catch a glimpse of the first black US president, the son of an African immigrant, after he arrived from a G8 summit in Italy.

Obama, his wife and their two daughters were welcomed at Kotoka international airport in the oceanside capital by Ghana’s President John Atta-Mills to traditional Ashante drumming, ululating and dances.

Obama, who will address parliament Saturday, said before the trip that he had chosen Ghana as his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa because it was an example of a “functioning democracy” in the conflict-scarred continent.

During his 24-hour visit, he is expected to push his vision on good governance and economic development for Africa, hours after securing a 20 billion dollar fund to feed the world’s hungry at the G8 summit.

The US leader will hold talks during a breakfast with his Atta-Mills, who came to power in January after a cliffhanger election, and then visit a malaria hospital receiving US assistance.

Along with his wife Michelle—a descendant of African slaves—he is also scheduled to tour Cape Coast Castle, formerly one of the continent’s main outposts from where slaves were shipped out to the Americas.

Ghana’s media was awash with articles, advertisements and poems paying tribute to Obama.

The Saturday morning newspapers featured pictures of Obama and his family arriving in Accra, while the main state-run Daily Graphic ran the headline “Welcome Home Obama”.

The Mirror published a poem about Obama and Atta-Mills titled “twins of the same mother”.

Obama’s choice of the former British colony on the west coast of Africa was based on Ghana’s record of democracy and stability in recent years.

Last year’s elections were Ghana’s fifth since a return to multi-party democracy in 1992 and marked the second time power changed hands alternately.

The first time power swapped hands peacefully was in 2000, when former military leader turned democratic ruler Jerry Rawlings handed over to John Kufuor after an eight-year stint as elected president.

“Part of the reason that we’re travelling to Ghana is because you’ve got there a functioning democracy, a president who’s serious about reducing corruption, and you’ve seen significant economic growth,” Obama said just before leaving for Accra.

“So I don’t want to overly generalise it, but I do want to make the broader point that a government that is stable, that is not engaging in tribal conflicts, that can give people confidence and security that their work will be rewarded.”

Obama, whose father was a Kenyan immigrant, also underscored the need for good governance on the world’s poorest continent.

“If you talk to people on the ground in Africa, certainly in Kenya, they will say that part of the issue here is the institutions aren’t working for ordinary people,” he said.

“And so governance is a vital concern that has to be addressed.”

Authorities in Cape Coast, a town 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Accra, banned all funerals this weekend for the visit.

Ghana’s central regional minister Ama Benyiwaa Doe told AFP: “The dead can be buried later, but Obama is here for once and we must pay all attention to him.”

Bookshops in Accra were stocked with piles of Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope” book. And larger-than-life posters of Obama and Atta-Mills with the slogan “partnership for change” and “akwaaba” (welcome in the local language) were omnipresent.

Obama is the third consecutive US leader in under a decade to travel to Ghana, which was the first black African country to break free from its colonial shackles in 1957.