LONDON, April 1, 2009
Obama Takes His Show On The Road
President Meets With Russian, British, Chinese Leaders At G20 In London; Sets Nuclear Disarmament Talks, Gives Queen An iPod
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Play CBS Video Video U.S. And Russia's Fresh Start On his first day on the world stage, President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and, as Chip Reid reports, announced negotiations on a new treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
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Video Responsibility Vs. Blame "Only On The Web": President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown explain the breakdown of global markets and the steps required to upgrade financial systems and regulations.
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Video Obamas Meet The Queen President Obama and his wife, Michelle, greeted Queen Elizabeth II as they arrived at Buckingham Palace.
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President Barack Obama meets with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev at Winfield House in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, right, and U.S. President Barack Obama leaves 10 Downing Street in London after a meeting ahead of the G20 Summit , Wednesday, April 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
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President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, pose with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during an audience at Buckingham Palace in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2009. (AP Photo/John Stillwell)
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Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama durng a press conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London Wednesday April 1, 2009. (AP)
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President Barack Obama shakes hands with China's President Hu Jintao at Winfield House in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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Photo Essay Barack Obama In London U.K. is first stop on president's first overseas trip.
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Map Obama's First Overseas Trip A day-by-day guide to one of the most closely watched presidential trips in recent memory.
"We can only meet this challenge together," he said Wednesday as the U.S. and Russia spoke on the summit sidelines about nuclear warhead reduction.
In the most dominant development, Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced following a meeting that the two counties reached a deal to reopen nuclear disarmament talks to "pursue" a reduction in the number of warheads held by both countries, which the president called the "gravest threat to humanity."
White House officials say it's part of an ambitious agenda worked out in advance, to give U.S.-Russian relations a fresh start, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Chip Reid.
"Over the last several years the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift," Mr. Obama said.
The flurry of diplomacy came as Mr. Obama stepped on the world stage for the first time as president, aiming to shore up both America's economy and its reputation across the globe. He met with Medvedev, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chinese President Hu Jintao - and promptly accepted invitations to visit Russia in July and China later in the year.
The president also took time out to meet visit Buckingham Palace for a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II, to whom he presented an iPod. (Read about the meeting here.)
Thousands of protesters, meanwhile, converged on central London to rally against the economic summit.
Even as he courted foreign leaders, the president spoke directly to anxious families back home, Mr. Obama sought to restore consumer confidence and encourage people to think about spending now to help their future.
"Basing decisions around fear is not the right way to go," he said. "We are going to get through this difficult time."
The president also disputed criticism that the United States was feuding with other nations about the need to pump more money into economic stimulus policies. Questioned about France and Germany, who have resisted Mr. Obama's calls for more stimulus spending to spur the global economy, the president said those differences have been vastly overstated, reports Reid.
"I am absolutely confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work in concert to deal with these problems," Mr. Obama said.
The president prodded nations to spur growth and work together on regulatory reform, and not fall into the kind of protectionism and other mistakes that helped fuel the Great Depression.
"That is a mistake that we cannot afford to repeat," Mr. Obama said during a news conference with Brown, the British leader.
Brown, too, sought to play up consensus. "We are within a few hours, I think, of agreeing a global plan for economic recovery and reform," he said. (A closer look at the press conference is here.)
On Russia, the White House said the U.S. and its former Cold War foe are determined to reduce the number of nuclear warheads but have not settled on a specific number.
"I think people on both sides of the Atlantic understand that as much as the constant cloud - the threat of nuclear warfare - has receded since the Cold War, that the presence of these deadly weapons, their proliferation, the possibility of them finding their way into the hands of terrorists continues to be the gravest threat to humanity," Mr. Obama said. (
The discussion centers on a replacement of the dying 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limited the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. START expires Dec. 5. Both nations say they want to have a new agreement in place before then. (Inside the Obama-Medvedev meeting.)
Earlier Wednesday, the president acknowledged strained relations between the two nations but says the time has come to emphasize areas where they can work together.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
The White House said Mr. Obama and Hu agreed to "intensify coordination and cooperation on global economic and financial issues." As economic leaders, the United States and China say they want to work together to address the economic crisis.
Officials in both Russia and China have called for a new global currency to end the dollar's dominance, although it's unlikely that the idea will gain immediate traction. (Read more on the meeting and the issue here.)
Mr. Obama's talks with Hu were sure to address Beijing's concerns about the safety of its position as Washington's biggest foreign creditor, with about $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. For the U.S., there are fears that any Chinese flight away from those investments would erode the U.S. ability to spend more on fighting the recession.
The administration also announced that it will continue high-level talks with China but reduce the frequency to one meeting a year, instead of two. The first meeting under Mr. Obama will be held this summer in the U.S.
(AP )
Before the summit even opened, divisions emerged among nations' leaders.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed dissatisfaction with how the summit has been shaping up and warned he would rather risk a public dispute than accept a vague consensus or a "false compromise."
Brown said he was confident Sarkozy would still be at the table when the dinner was complete.
In London, Mr. Obama also met with Brown's main rival - David Cameron, leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From 100 Days: World Affairs
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- I hear the Kenyan mating dance with the gorilla Michelle is a sight to behold.
Posted by TheMasses21 at 8:31 AM : Apr 2, 2009
Wow, another racist. Not surprised though. - Reply to this comment
- With all the major concerns out there, why is Obama concerned about how many nukes we have? Does he have an itchy finger or something? Is he concerned a President who comes after him will? Is he going to end up reducing our warheads to an amount where we aren't able to have them strategically spread out on subs? Did Obama bring this up with Medvedev boy (AKA pawn of Putin) or did Med boy? My guess is this is a ploy of the Russians. They are always so concerned about how much power the USA has, and they are always looking to reduce it.
- Reply to this comment
- BEWARE OF OBAMA HE WANTS TO BE KING
- Reply to this comment
- So far what's being replayed here on what Obama is saying is tired worn-out preachy rhetoric. Why was it necessary for Obama to bring with him his ever-faithful crutch, the teleprompter? This underscores how unprepared and incapable the president is of really thinking on his own and without spoon-fed verbiage. Bush may have been a verbal goof-up and an embarrassment, but what Obama is doing is no different. I've especially noticed when Obama doesn't have his crutch by his side and he is pressed to think on his own and string words together to form sentences, unless he's spewing out previously memorized thoughts, he stammers and has a problem making cogent remarks and properly constructed sentences. The teleprompter is no different than a kid's blanky or their trusty thumb digit.
Posted by credibility2 at 4:37 AM : Apr 2, 2009
Have you considered Night Classes and Counseling? You obviously lack the basic education to understand the language and are so closed minded you can't understand anyone who doesn't agree with your narrow views. On a day when the Clown Circus once called the Republican Party released their "Fudge-it", to make statements like you made is NOT a sign of good mental health. - Reply to this comment
- Amazing! Our New President got more accomplished in ONE DAY than the Incompetent Loser he replaced did in EIGHT YEARS! Absolutely AMAZING!!
- Reply to this comment
- So far what's being replayed here on what Obama is saying is tired worn-out preachy rhetoric. Why was it necessary for Obama to bring with him his ever-faithful crutch, the teleprompter? This underscores how unprepared and incapable the president is of really thinking on his own and without spoon-fed verbiage. Bush may have been a verbal goof-up and an embarrassment, but what Obama is doing is no different. I've especially noticed when Obama doesn't have his crutch by his side and he is pressed to think on his own and string words together to form sentences, unless he's spewing out previously memorized thoughts, he stammers and has a problem making cogent remarks and properly constructed sentences. The teleprompter is no different than a kid's blanky or their trusty thumb digit.
- Reply to this comment
- Where do some of these bloggers come from? Are you CIA - NSA- Homeland Security paid to disrupt intelligent dissent? When any blogger (whether I agree with their stance or not) shows any intellect some of these really strange and bizarre posts show up. When I discuss blogging with others there is this, bloggers are just really messed up people. The proof is here every day. When real people try to bring in real points these angry and bizarre blogs appear and I go HUH?
- Reply to this comment
- look who's in the news?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=93481 - Reply to this comment
- My Thief, it is time I was abed. We shall have to continue our trist in dreams until the light once again shines.
- Reply to this comment
- Yes?
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 12:14 AM
Yes - Reply to this comment
- ...Don't you find yourself secluded at times snowgirl or is it busy there like the city life .....
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 12:03 AM :
I live south of Denver. So I'm not in the mountains. I am in the foothills of a beautiful section of the Rockies. Although it is a city, it is widespread with a limitation on how tall the buildings can be. Much like a large sprawling suburb. Thee are also farms close by and though I'm in the city, there are fox, rabbit, racoon and deer. There is even a beaver dam in the park close by.
I used to feel very secluded having grown up to teenage years in Phila. But i love it now and dislike crowds. I really don't care for too many people lol. I'm a bit of a loner and very particular about who I spend my time with. : ) - Reply to this comment
- Jeff Schrembs said: Obama and his thirst for power, and destruction of anyone/everyone who is not a diehard contributer to Democratic Causes, knows no bounds.
Obama would NEVER have disclosed, during the campaign, that he would RAISE cigarette taxes OVER a dollar a pack and now RAISE taxes for everyone who turns on a light, uses heat, electricty, etc.
Just like the Democrats who BRAGGED about getting "minimum wages" up a few dollars and then gas prices went up 200% more. Thus. it was a NET LOSS.
Obama owes his allegences to the Corrupt Chicago Political Machine, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and the Unions. PLUS lets not forget the "Godfather" George Soros who admits and BRAGS about him working with the Nazis during WWII and making money.
These are the POSTER CHILDREN for the Democratic Party.
To those who voted for Obama this is the "change" he promised. It will be a LONG, and diasterous four years, term and America will be the laughing stock of the entire World.
AMERICAN CITIZENS need to WAKE UP once and for all and start DEMANDING their Country and it's leaders adhere to the Constitution and put the American Citizens FIRST - NOW - ALWAYS.
Nuff said.
Jeff Schrembs, American Citizen - Reply to this comment
- Apology not warranted : ) Yes, it was lovely. No, not all mountains and not nearly as green as I would like. But, I've grown to appeciate its beauty. I can never go above tree line or my head becomes filled with pain. I love being in the trees and near the rivers. The wildlife is wonderful.
- Reply to this comment
- Thiefofhearts1
Are you accusing me of something I haven't done AGAIN? If anyone is a stalker, it's you. I am on here very little anymore.
And you are also the one that personally attacks people. You are one of the reasons why CBS made it's changes. To keep you and your buddies from verbally abusing people.
You keep whining about the CBS changes, but you are the one responsible for it. - Reply to this comment
- There isn't a day goes by
that I don't think about her.Yes?
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 11:13 PM
Yes? I would hear a tale of your thoughts. - Reply to this comment
- hmmmm They are delicious did you made them yourself ?.....
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 11:09 PM
:-) But of course. When the mood strikes, I prove quite handy in the kitchen. - Reply to this comment
- I know it is vey late there :-)
- Reply to this comment
- Thank you, Snowgirl.
I'm very happy to be here...Have you gone to sleep or something misunderstood......
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 11:00 PM
My keyboard stopped typing. It was quite vexing. I had to do some maintenance and reboot. I just got back minutes ago.
I did sense that you may be a bit distracted or occupied elsewhere. - Reply to this comment
- Thank you for
the delicious cookies.
Posted by Thiefofhearts1 at 10:53 PM
Cookies? - Reply to this comment
- That may very well be the one who assaulted Irish a little while back for her association with you. She was a stranger to Irish. C
- Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
