US President Barack Obama departed late on Sunday for a trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia, which will include attendance at a nuclear summit, crisis discussions on Ukraine, a visit to the Vatican and a stop in Riyadh.
The third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague on Monday and Tuesday derives partly from one of Obama’s own initiatives, after he highlighted nuclear terrorism as one of the greatest threats to international security.
Russia, now in a tense standoff with the European Union and the United States over its takeover of Crimea, is expected to attend the summit, but will be excluded when the G7 leaders huddle over the Ukraine crisis.
The G7 meeting Monday night will include the leaders of Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, the US and Britain. Since 1998, they have met with Russia as the G8, but that constellation has been called into doubt as both the EU and US threaten broad economic sanctions against Moscow.
British Prime Minister David Cameron says permanent expulsion should be considered.
At the nuclear summit, Obama will encounter Chinese President Xi Jinping, little more than a day after the latest revelations that the US National Security Agency spied on the leaders of China.
His next stop will be Brussels, where Obama will participate in an EU-US summit on Wednesday.
The Belgium leg of his visit will include a visit to Flanders Field Cemetery with Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and King Philippe, and a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Thursday will take him to Rome and the Vatican, where he is to meet with Pope Francis. Although Obama is not Catholic, his earliest days as a community organiser in the 1980s were with the Catholic church in Chicago.
Obama’s insistence that his signature health insurance reform cover contraception for employees of all firms and organisations, with exceptions only for some churches, could be a point of tension with Francis.
While in Italy, Obama will meet with the Italian leaders President Giorgio Napolitano and new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
A number of bilateral meetings are also in store during Obama’s tour: with the Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte; China’s Xi; King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands; and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi.
The US President is to meet jointly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun Hye in the first face-to-face talks between the two Asian leaders amid badly frayed relations.
In Riyadh, Obama will hold talks with King Abdullah, with a number of simmering issues of disagreement over Syria and Iran likely on the agenda.
Saudi Arabia wants the US to pursue a harder line against the Syrian regime, and has been irked by Washington’s decision to try to solve the nuclear dispute with Iran through diplomacy.
Riyadh has also been angered by Washington’s decision to suspend military aid to Cairo, after the Egyptian military toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.