President Barack Obama arrived here Tuesday for high-wire economic talks with world leaders, a visit to Buckingham Palace — and a chance to redeem himself in the gift-giving department.
Obama, traveling with his wife, Michelle, a massive entourage of staffers, official vehicles and an emergency supply of type AB blood, will meet privately today with the leaders of Russia and China, and also with Queen Elizabeth II.
“Obviously, this is President Obama’s chance to be among his peers in the alliance, to establish his style of leadership,” said Stephen Flanagan, an international security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “There are tremendous expectations.”
For a summit on economic issues, the Group of 20 conference is promising uncommonly high drama. Some 10,000 police will be out on the streets controlling demonstrations, in the largest security effort since the city’s 2005 subway bombings.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday threatened to walk out of the world leaders summit if his demand for more stringent global financial regulations were not met.
And the British press is in a dither over whether Obama will come bearing better gifts for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, after the recent flap over the two leaders’ customary gift exchange at the White House.
“Gordon Brown must have rummaged through his party bag with disappointment,” wrote Ian Drury at the Daily Mail. “Barack Obama, the leader of the world’s richest country, gave the Prime Minister a box set of 25 classic American films — a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks.”
Worse still, Brown was unable to watch the movies because U.S. and U.K. DVD players are not compatible. The prime minister’s gift to Obama was a decorative pencil holder made from a Victorian-era anti-slave ship, the HMS Gannet.
The White House last week stood mum on whether Obama was traveling with gifts for Queen Elizabeth or Brown. The topic also has been of interest to international scholars, because for some it underscores Obama’s lack of experience in diplomacy.
“The British press vastly exaggerated, I think, some of these issues, but it was great fun anyway,” said Reginald Dale, senior fellow of European studies at the CSIS. “It’s going to be difficult because if he comes to Britain with another gift for Gordon Brown, then it implies the first one wasn’t adequate.”
Obama’s private meeting with the queen also is generating considerable interest, in part because her audiences with prominent leaders can be mysterious and secretive.
Sally Bedell Smith, a Washington author in London working on a book about Queen Elizabeth, said the queen’s particular skill is putting her visitors at ease.
After an introduction and a handshake — only British subjects bow or curtsy — Obama and the first lady are scheduled to spend about 25 minutes in private conversation with the queen.
The White House is expected to provide reporters with a readout of their conversation after the meeting, but Smith said not to expect much comment from Buckingham Palace.
“She’s never betrayed a sense of favoritism,” Smith said.
Obama’s massive mobilization of personnel and equipment includes his presidential limo and the identical decoy vehicle, called the “toast” car; his Marine helicopters, a medical team toting emergency blood supplies, and hundreds of staff and security.
