President Obama will travel through Greece, Germany and Peru next week to reflect on his foreign policy legacy, which now faces an uncertain future thanks to Donald Trump’s surprising victory in the presidential election.
On the final overseas trip of his presidency, Obama will address the status of the nuclear agreement with Iran, the fate of his trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries and the recent resistance to globalization that has emerged both at home and abroad, according to deputy national security advisers Ben Rhodes and Wally Adeyemo.
“We certainly expected the election will be the primary topic on people’s minds everywhere we go,” Rhodes told reporters on a conference call Friday, adding that the nature of its outcome would likely heighten interest in Obama’s discussions.
Trump relentlessly ridiculed Obama’s approach to foreign policy on the campaign trail, where he vowed to dismantle the Iran deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other “stupid” agreements that, in his opinion, did not put America’s interests first.
“We certainly recognize the positions that have been taken during the campaign,” Rhodes said. “We will continue to fulfill our commitments while President Obama is in office.”
The president will make his first stop in Greece on Tuesday, marking his first official visit to that country. During his two-day stop there, Obama is set to deliver a marquee speech that acknowledges the “need to recognize the challenges that are presented by globalization” while touting the merits of “open markets.”
Beyond Trump’s unexpected defeat of Hillary Clinton this week, European countries have experienced their own political upheaval as populism emerges as an international answer to the forces of globalism.
Voters in the U.K. surprised the British political class by opting out of the European Union with a controversial referendum in June, French President Francois Hollande is facing a robust challenge from nationalist leader Marine Le Pen, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party in September suffered significant losses during a regional election in what was perhaps a taste of the populist resistance to come.
Obama will visit Merkel, with whom aides said he has a “close friendship, to discuss issues ranging from migration to the situation in Ukraine.
During his eight years in office, “Angela Merkel has been … the president’s closest partner,” Rhodes said on Friday. During his visit to Germany, Obama will also meet with Hollande and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, among other European leaders.
Obama’s final destination, Peru, will provide a forum for the president to discuss what will likely be the first foreign policy casualty of Trump’s administration: the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump ran aggressively on his promise to kill TPP and renegotiate the country’s existing multilateral trade deals, such as NAFTA.
Rhodes and Adeyemo stressed that Obama’s views on the importance of TPP have not changed in the aftermath of Clinton’s defeat.
But the aides acknowledged the fact that Congress has already signaled its refusal to take up trade legislation before Trump assumes office, likely spelling the end of the deal.
Although Rhodes said Obama would discuss the trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru, he noted that the conversation would ultimately focus on “recent political developments in our country and how that affects TPP.”
