Obama, EU plan new era to meet global challenges

Apr 6, 2009, 0:12 GMT

US President Barack Obama is pictured during his meeting with former Czech president Vaclav Havel (not pictured) in Prague, Czech Republic on 05 April 2009. US President Barack Obama laid out an ambitious plan to rid the world of atomic weapons in Prague, evoking his successful election campaign slogan of \'Yes we Can\' to call for world action to face up to the nuclear threat. EPA/FILIP SINGER

Prague - US President Barack Obama and the European Union (EU) leaders wound up a summit in Prague Sunday, setting out an ambitious plan for creating a world free of nuclear weapons and calling for joint action to face up to global challenges.

With his message on the threat posed by ballistic missiles given a new sense of urgency after North Korea launched a rocket only hours before, Obama warned in a speech to thousands in Prague's historic Hradcanske Square that the threat of a nuclear attack had increased.

'The threat of global nuclear war has gone down but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up,' he said, adding that the testing of nuclear weapons had risen and the technology of building a bomb had spread, as a result increasing the risk of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

'The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War,' Obama said. 'The world must stand together to stop the spread of these weapons.'

He admitted that some may find his proposal naive but he went on to acknowledge that the scale of the changes meant that his vision for a world free of nuclear weapons might not be achieved in his lifetime.

At their summit, Obama and the EU leaders called for joint action to face up to global challenges and to draw a line under the recent tensions between Washington and its allies in Europe.

Obama flew to Turkey late Sunday in a trip that the White House hoped would help to pave the way for a new era in US relations with the Muslim world after years of tensions.

He also said that the future of the US's planned controversial missile defence system in Central Europe depended on Iran, marking out the difference between his administration and that of his predecessor, George W Bush.

During the one-day EU-US summit in Prague, Obama also set out the foreign policy visions of his administration, telling the 27 EU leaders insisting that Washington would play an active role in fighting climate change as well as dealing with the current economic crisis.

'Europe and the United States are strongest when we stand together,' Obama said. EU President Mirek Topolanek meanwhile described the US leader's visit to Prague as 'a symbol of the new level of US-European relations.'

But in remarks to the summit, Obama also stressed that he expected something in return from Europe, saying the EU needed to take steps to overcome its differences on accepting Guantanamo Bay prisoners. 'A strong partnership requires shared responsibility,' he said.

This would help to ensure that action would be taken to help those who had been hardest hit by the economic storm, Obama said, while pledging to bridge the gap between the US and Europe over global warming.

His remarks on climate change were greeted positively from EU leaders, with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso saying the views in Europe and Washington were now much more in line.

'It is true we are now much more on a convergence path with our American friends than before than were the past policies of the USA,' Barroso said.

'In my view, there is no old Europe or new Europe - there is only a united Europe,' Obama said referring to former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's division of Europe at the height of the tensions between the Bush White House and parts of Europe created by the Iraq War.

'I believe in a strong Europe and a strong European Union,' Obama said.

As a mark of the new US-European resolve to act more in concert on global issues, the EU and Washington issued a joint statement roundly condemning North Korea's attempt to launch a rocket calling on Pyongyang to end its 'threatening behaviour.'

But at the Prague summit, Obama reiterated his commitment to closing the Guantanamo base in January next year, Obama told the summit that reaching the goal would be made much easier if EU member states worked with Washington to accept some transferred detainees.

Obama also expects European help in dealing with the deepening security problem in Afghanistan saying the 'European Union can and must also do more.'

On the eve of his visit to Turkey, Obama was also prepared to take the EU head on over Ankara's membership of the Brussels-based bloc, which is one of the most divisive issues in the EU.

He told the EU leaders that it was important to forge common cause with areas outside the EU, including the Muslim world.

'Moving forward towards Turkish membership in the EU would be an important signal of your commitment to this agenda and ensure that we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe,' Obama said.

In the meantime, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hit back, saying his stance has unchanged: 'Turkey is a great ally of Europe and the US. It should remain a privileged partner.'

But while Obama has been attempting to promote a sense of change in the US' world view and its foreign relations, he also indicated that there were areas where he planned a degree of continuity with the policies of the previous administration.

Apart from backing Turkey's EU membership ambitions, Obama insisted that there would be no change in Washington's strong support for Georgia's independence.