Obama Wraps Up Foreign Tour in London | Voice of America - English
Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, held talks with British leaders in London on Saturday as he wound up a foreign tour that took him to Afghanistan, Iraq, other parts of the the Middle East and Europe. VOA's Sonja Pace reports from the British capital.
Barack Obama met with British Prime Minister GordonBrown for nearly two hours at number 10 Downing Street and then steppedoutside to talk to the press, about what he said had been a "terrificconversation." "The prime minister's emphasis, like mine, ishow we can strengthen the trans-Atlantic relationship, solve problemsthat can't be solved by any single country individually, climatechange, the issue of international terrorism, some of the issuessurrounding financial markets," he said. He also thanked Britain for its contribution in Afghanistan. "Iknow the troops here in Great Britain have borne a heavy price for warsin both Iraq and Afghanistan and I think the American people aregrateful," said Obama. The presidential hopeful is on the finalpart of the European leg of his world tour that has taken him toAfghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories,Germany, France and now Britain. The low-key tone of this stopwas in sharp contrast to the visit in Berlin where the Illinois senatoraddressed a crowd of over 200,000 enthusiastic Germans. "Peopleof the world, look at Berlin where a wall came down, a continent cametogether and history proved that there is no challenge too great for aworld that stands as one," said the Democratic presidential candidate. Thehigh profile nature of Obama's world tour has led some pundits toquestion the appropriateness of the candidate being given what amountsto a presidential welcome. After the huge turnout in Berlin onThursday, Obama stood side by side with Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in thekind of photo op normally reserved for a head of state. Analystsput the low-key nature of the London visit down to the Britishgovernment's desire not to show favoritism to either of the two U.S.presidential candidates. In London, Obama was asked whether hisforeign tour might not hurt him politically back home where people aremore concerned about domestic issues. He said he would not be surprisedif his opinion poll ratings dropped somewhat since he's been out of thecountry. But, he said, the visit was an important one. "I amconvinced that many of the issues that we face at home are not going tobe solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad andunless we get a handle on Iraq and Afghanistan not only are we going tobe less safe, but it's also going to be a huge drain of resources,"said Obama. On this final stop, Obama also had private talkswith former British prime minister Tony Blair and had talks scheduledwith David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative party.